And the rivers still flow towards an open sea: Sergeant Major Kim Dong-Won

Artist Lee Grant photographed this portrait of Sergeant Major Kim Dong-Won, 47, in the Demilitarized Zone, South Korea during a research residency in September 2018. Kim, a career soldier since 1993, serves in the 7th Artillery Regiment, 6th Division.

The portrait is one of 11 photographs in the series "And the rivers still flow towards an open sea", which responds to the Korean experience of the Korean War. It is one of two series of photographs that comprise "Mnemosyne", her response to the history and legacy of the Korean War shared between the Republic of Korea and Australia. Grant was commissioned by the Memorial to undertake an artist's residency in Korea and create work that responded to this legacy. She wrote of her time in and around the DMZ:

"The landscape there is quiet and idyllic compared to the capital of Seoul. A place where people and things move slowly, even during harvest time. Here, the Hantan river winds its way from the North down into to the Han river, Korea’s major tributary which in turn runs out to the Yellow sea. Wandering through the landscape tainted by conflict and the ghosts of the past, the late afternoons whispered of the Summer just gone; dragonflies zigging and zagging through the warm air, drawing attention to the meadows of flowers – wild daisies – and neat fields of rice. The rustling wind played feathery tunes through the cornstalks, echoing imagined histories, and the labours of the farmers’ harvesting. And yet, despite the illusion of idyll, there remains a sense of unease, a strange understanding that not far away lies the 4km wide and 250km long demilitarized zone. A site where the flora and fauna have somehow – surprisingly – flourished over the last 65 years thanks to the planting of thousands of landmines by both the North and the South. The silence here is odd: there is a resounding stillness punctuated only by the passing of a farm truck or military vehicle and the distant blast of bombs detonating through the valley, part of the military training offensive that the ROK Army undertakes on a regular basis." - Lee Grant, 2019