‘Dulce et decorum est’ is an installation of inflated foil balloons in different shapes and colours, attached with colourful strings to a pink helium container.

Similar to other works by Gov, the installation unfolds over time. What appears from afar to be a familiar, cheerful cluster of balloons – typically unicorns, dolphins and animated characters sold on beach promenades or in city centres – reveals itself upon closer inspection as a collection of tanks, jet fighters, helicopters, explosions and fire. The foil balloons used in the work were all sourced from different children’s birthday shops.

The title of the work alludes to Wilfred Owen’s poem of the same name, written during World War I and published in 1920 after Owen’s death on the battlefield shortly before the war’s end. The poem describes a horrific scene following a gas attack, and the suffering, crumbling, dying bodies of those who failed to put on their protective masks in time. It ends with a bitter invocation of the Roman lyric poet Horace’s famous line, “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori” - “It is sweet and proper to die for one’s country”.