World War II Australia-Japan

Simon Gende is a contemporary artist from Papua New Guinea (PNG) whose practice focuses on international events and the social and political issues that frame them.

This is a commemorative painting of Australian and Japanese soldiers fighting in Papua New Guinea during the Second World War. Divided by a river, cartoon-like soldiers are engaged in battle on opposing territories marked by their respective national flags. The soldiers aim an assortment of rifles, mortars and blow-pipes at each-other as an Australian helicopter hovers overhead, deploying two more soldiers into the Japanese held territory.

Stylistically Gende’s work is representative of a new generation of Papuan contemporary art that fuses both the traditional and contemporary art world. It brings together traditional Papuan design and geometric patterns, with the surrounding urban environment. Of marked influence on this artistic development was the impact of the Second World War which saw a period of rapid social and cultural transitions, and the proliferation of new technologies in Papua New Guinea.