<004 Planetes AU 2018>

Artist Taedong Kim photographed the dome of the Australian War Memorial as part of his 'Planetes' project, in which he photographs Korean War memorials and monuments to explore the passing of time and the traces of history. Kim uses long-exposure night time photography with an equatorial mount, which traces the axis of stars in the night sky. Consequently, stationary objects are blurred due to the movement of the camera. He writes:

'As a still image of the stars has, in fact, been turned into one moment by multiple points in time, I wanted to capture the passing of time in human civilization as embodied in these shaken traces of history.' (Taedong Kim, Artist statement, 2018)

Kim was selected by the Australian War Memorial as the Korean artist for the inaugural artist residency exchange project with the Republic of Korea. (Lee Grant was the Australian artist.) Kim travelled to Australia to research the history and legacy of the conflict. He visited commemorative sites, met veterans and undertook research at the Australian War Memorial.

This project was supported by the Department of Communications and the Arts' Anzac Centenary Grants fund.