Stanley Pearl

Stanley Keith Pearl (21 December 1893 – 9 August 1986) was an Australian sapper with the First Australian Imperial Force during World War I, known for his trench art.

Early life Stanley Keith Pearl was born on 21 December 1893 in Ulverstone, Tasmania, the youngest child of Charles Pearl and Sophia Ann Wells. He performed this role for the duration of the war. Pearl's Victory Medal (United Kingdom) and British War Medal are held in the Australian War Memorial's collection.

Pearl produced a large collection of trench art between 1916 and 1919. Pearl donated his trench art objects to the Australian War Memorial but whether this reflects the full extent of that which he produced in the context of war remains a mystery. Military shell cases, other parts of shells, badges and buttons were just some of the war-related materials used by Pearl to assemble everyday objects such as a clock, a map of Tasmania and a hat pin stand, as is evidenced by the accessibility and digitisation of his work on the War Memorial's online collection (see external links for selection of images). Pearl used matter-of-fact language where tales of death became mere descriptions.

Post-war Pearl survived World War I. During March 1919, Pearl returned to Tasmania, although soon relocated to Canberra. He began working for the Australian War Memorial in 1941, the year that it opened, and worked as a carpenter and senior tradesman there until he retired. who had previously been married to Stanley's brother Ernest Tasman Pearl.

Death and legacy Stanley died at Woden Valley Hospital, Canberra, on 9 August 1986 at the age of 92 years, survived by Gertrude. He is an "enigma." According to Corinne A. Kratz, Pearl was unconsciously engaging with features of material culture such as bricolage and recyclia in producing trench art.

A 2016-7 exhibition entitled Sappers & Shrapnel: Contemporary Art and the Art of the Trenches at the Art Gallery of South Australia showcased Pearl's trench art. The exhibition presented Pearl's pieces alongside other First World War trench art objects and more recent works of art that reflected on war today, by artists including Ben Quilty, Olga Cironis, Nicholas Folland, and Aboriginal women artists from Tjanpi Desert Weavers. Such a display, in bringing together the historical and the contemporary, was the first opportunity whereby the trench art of Pearl was exposed to a wider audience.