Sunset 24.4.2015

This painting on glass depicts the sun setting over the Aegean Sea on the evening of 24 April 2015. Artist David Jolly was commissioned by the Memorial to attend the centenary Anzac Day Dawn Service at Gallipoli and create a series of paintings in response. Jolly works by photographing and recording places and events and then selecting moments and details that convey the larger story. In this case, he explored Gallipoli for several days, taking photographs, short film and sound recordings and drawing key sites on the Peninsula. The seven paintings present moments from between the afternoon of 24 April and the conclusion of the Dawn Service, when the crowds left the commemorative site.

This painting is the second of these moments, showing the spectacular sunset that evening, looking out over the Aegean Sea, In order to attend the ceremony, thousands of Australians and New Zealanders had had to enter a ballot in order to attend the ceremony, and then travel to Gallipoli. On the 24th April stringent security arrangements meant that the crowd had first assembled in Mimosa Park, then walked several kilometres to the commemorative site where there was further security screening. It took many hours for the thousands in attendance to arrive on site. David Jolly recounted that as the sun set there was anticipation in the air as the crowd settled in for the night ahead.