| Place | Asia: Korea |
|---|---|
| Accession Number | AWM2019.215.1.8 |
| Collection type | Art |
| Object type | Photograph |
| Physical description | Photography; digital pigment print on archival rag photographique paper |
| Maker |
Dunkley, Harold Vaughan Grant, Lee |
| Place made | Australia: Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Korea |
| Date made | 2019; c17 March 1951 |
| Conflict |
Korea, 1950-1953 |
| Copyright |
Item copyright: AWM Licensed copyright |
Towards a field of sleep: Portrait of O4410 Flight Lieutenant Ian Russell Olorenshaw
Description
This print of an historic photograph taken by Harold Vaughan Dunkley from 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:
Portrait of O4410 Flight Lieutenant Ian Russell Olorenshaw, of 77 Squadron RAAF, after returning from a combat mission in one of the unit’s P51 Mustang fighter aircraft. He is still wearing his flying uniform, helmet, goggles and oxygen mask.
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 ... Harold Vaughan Dunkley made some considered and beautiful portraits of pilots, some of whom are caught in moments of quiet contemplation." - Lee Grant, 2019