Hall of Memory: solo show at River of Art Festival, Moruya

I have my first solo show at Hive Motel, Moruya as part of the River of Art Festival. If you are in the neighbourhood, please come see until 23 September! It has been a pleasure to collaborate with my War Literature teacher from the Australian Defence Force Academy, Adrian Caesar - whose published poems and novels touch on many of the themes that my work does. Last night we held a public Artists and Authors Talk, where it was wonderful to discuss our artistic ideas with a broader audience.

‘No art can depict the reality of war. War is brutal, ugly, chaotic. Art is about beauty, order, significance’, argues the artist and Vietnam veteran character, David Young, in Adrian Caesar’s 2021 novel, A Winter Sowing. Adrian's book provides a wonderful lens to read my work on Counter Monuments.

The rise of the Counter-Monument movement tried to make meaning out of the awfulness of the Holocaust. Counter-monuments often create negative space, depicting the ever-changing conditions of memory. They call into question the tendency of traditional monuments to displace the past, reducing and overshadowing viewers. Counter monuments do not console but provoke, they talk to the ways time, memory and current history intersect. Counter memorials throw back the burden of memory. So far, Anzac has remained untouched by the counter-memorial movement. In Hall of Memory, I imagine what a print-imbued Australian war counter-monument would look like if it reflected the true cost of war.

Come check it out at https://www.riverofart.com.au/events/hall-of-memory/

Read more about Adrian's work at https://www.adriancaesar.com/