Medal for all battles

Elwyn Lynn was a pioneering exponent of collage art in Australia and is best known for his 'matter paintings' in which he built up heavily textured surfaces. The work depicts a large central cross, in black ink, upon which the names of individual battles, places and theatres of war from across the world, in both historic and contemporary times, are written. A gold military cross is pinned to the left arm of the cross and the right arm is sliced and damaged at the bottom corner, with a photograph of a landscape with a tree inserted. The cruciform shape and colour black are symbolic of sacrifice and lost life. This work places events in Australian military history (particularly Gallipoli, Tobruk and Kokoda) , which have been claimed as defining moments in the shaping of our nation's identity within the broader context of world conflict and draws parallels between the shaping of destiny for other that war has had. The collage is not celebratory but mournful and speaks of the universality of war, violence and death in moulding humanity in the past, present and future.