Towards a field of sleep: Walking over snow-covered mountains

This print of an historic photograph taken by Phillip Oliver Hobson in the Memorial's collection was included by artist Lee Grant in "Towards a field of sleep". This is one of two series of photographs that comprise "Mnemosyne", responding the history and legacy of the Korean War shared between the Republic of Korea and Australia.

The original caption reads:
Walking over snow-covered mountains, an Australian mortar fire control team moves to a forward position to bring support to a patrol. They are carrying SMLE No. 1 Mk III* .303 calibre rifles, sleeping bags, and their own webbing which is a mix of Australian and American equipment. The soldiers at left are also carrying 3-inch mortar rounds. The soldier at right is carrying a camera slung over his shoulder.

Grant was selected by the Australian War Memorial as the Australian artist for the inaugural artist residency exchange project with the Republic of Korea. (Taedong Kim was the Korean artist, he spent a month based at the Australian War Memorial.) Grant travelled to Korea to research the history and legacy of the conflict. She visited historic sites and met with current and former service personnel and civilians who lived through the war. She then undertook research at the Australian War Memorial and met with Australian veterans. "Mnemosyne" includes two series of photographs, "Towards a field of sleep" and "And the rivers still flow towards an open sea". Grant's own photographs are complemented with archival photograph's from the Memorial collection. Mnemosyne is the name of the ancient Green goddess of memory and remembrance. The title 'Towards a field of sleep' was inspired by the poem "Towards the field of sleep" by Korean poet Choi Jeongrye.

Grant wrote about this commission:
"My intentions in creating this work was to have a conversation with the collection and to consider my own work alongside that of other photographers who trod in the same places before me. It was a way of corresponding with some of the official war photographers who recorded, in fascinatingly different ways, Australian soldiers going about the acts of war. Philip Oliver Hobson, perhaps one of the better-known photographers of the Korean War (and a veteran of WWII) records intimate daily rituals as well as the movement of soldiers going about their work." - Lee Grant, 2019