| Place | Asia: Korea |
|---|---|
| Accession Number | AWM2019.215.2.1 |
| Collection type | Art |
| Object type | Photograph |
| Physical description | Photography; digital pigment print on archival rag photographique paper |
| Maker |
Grant, Lee Meldrum, Donald Albert |
| Place made | Australia: Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Korea |
| Date made | 2019; 15 February 1955 |
| Conflict |
Korea, 1950-1953 |
| Copyright |
Item copyright: AWM Licensed copyright |
And the rivers still flow towards an open sea: In the ranks of the 1st Battalion
Description
This print of an historic photograph taken by Donald Albert (Tim) Meldrum in the Memorial's collection was included by artist Lee Grant in "And the rivers still flow towards an open sea". This is one of two series of photographs that comprise "Mnemosyne", responding the history and legacy of the Korean War shared between the Republic of Korea and Australia.
The original caption reads:
"In the ranks of the 1st Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (1RAR) in Korea, there are a number of KATCOMS (Korean Augmentation Troops Commonwealth), attached to units of 1 Commonwealth Division and are “keen soldiers and are glad of the chance to live and train with the Australians”. At grenade training is Private Kim Hyo-Hyung." [Print is cropped version of the original]
Grant was selected by the Australian War Memorial as the Australian artist for the inaugural artist residency exchange project with the Republic of Korea. (Taedong Kim was the Korean artist, he spent a month based at the Australian War Memorial.) Grant travelled to Korea to research the history and legacy of the conflict. She visited historic sites and met with current and former service personnel and civilians who lived through the war. She then undertook research at the Australian War Memorial and met with Australian veterans. "Mnemosyne" includes two series of photographs, "Towards a field of sleep" and "And the rivers still flow towards an open sea". Grant's own photographs are complemented with archival photograph's from the Memorial collection. Mnemosyne is the name of the ancient Green goddess of memory and remembrance.
Grant wrote about this commission:
"My intentions in creating this work was to have a conversation with the collection and to consider my own work alongside that of other photographers who trod in the same places before me. It was a way of corresponding with some of the official war photographers who recorded, in fascinatingly different ways, Australian soldiers going about the acts of war. ... Meldrum moves us in a bit closer to the action and provides an insight into the machinations of war." - Lee Grant, 2019