'Blood, sweat and tears': Trauma of Australian veterans laid bare

Droplets of blood, sweat and tears have been spread across the Australian War Memorial's Sculpture Garden to acknowledge the psychological and physical trauma carried by soldiers and their loved ones.

These droplets, sculpted from Australian marble, are starkly dissimilar to the heroic statues of proud soldiers that traditionally honour service people.

Instead the curved stones droplets, unveiled in Canberra on February 22, were designed to appear as liquid, held together by delicate surface tension, but when touched they reveal an inner strength and resilience, sculptor Alex Seton said.

Veteran Ben Farinazzo, who suffered psychologically after serving from 1991 to 2002, said the scultpure "went a long way towards the healing process and shows that we're starting to recognise wounded veterans and their families".

"We've got a strong and vibrant veteran community but there are many among us that are suffering from seen and unseen wounds and many people feel discarded and alone when they leave defence," he said.

Mr Farinazzo said he was "blown away" by the number of fellow veterans suffering from anxiety, depression, and PTSD as a result of their service when he sought treatment.

"[Service people] put up their hands to place others before themselves, to protect our country and our national interest and, in doing so, have incurred a whole lot of injury to their bodies and to their mind," he said.

The contemporary abstract sculpture, For Every Drop Shed in Anguish, was commissioned by the Australian War Memorial.

Mr Seton, celebrated for his detailed carving work, sculpted 18 unique droplets of marble with some weighing up to 3,000 kilograms.

He picked the marble from Chillagoe quarries in far north Queensland where the owners had a stockpile of stones that had been rejected for their imperfections.

Mr Seton said the "many so-called flaws", from thatched crystals, veins of deep rust-red iron oxide and bandings of grey-blue and yellow, revealed inner character and beauty in the stone.

"It was this unique veining that could embody the scars borne by many military personnel and their families," he said.

By lucky coincidence the truck driver hauling the stone from Queensland to Mr Seton's Sydney workshop was an army veteran.

When Mr Seton explained what the stones would be used for, the truck driver volunteered to deliver all the marble required.

Long conversations with the returned serviceman helped Mr Seton see "how deeply many veterans think about their experiences" and inspired the depiction of blood, sweat and tears.

Chairs have been placed around the installation to allow members of the public to sit and reflect on the sculpture while QR codes on each seat provided links to veteran's stories and mental health services.

Mr Seton's installation was unveiled in the Sculpture Garden on the grounds of the Australian War Memorial on February 22, 2024.