Towards a field of sleep: Seven Australian soldiers who died during the Korean War

This print of an historic photograph taken by Donald Albert (Tim) Meldrum 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:
"Seven Australian soldiers who died during the Korean War are being reburied with full military honours in the United Nations Military Cemetery, Pusan. Their bodies had been handed over by the Communists (North Koreans), under an exchange of war dead scheme known as Operation Glory. Two Australian padres, Chaplain Frank Shine and Chaplain Leslie Crisp, both of the 1st Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (1RAR), are conducting the burial services. Men of more than twenty different nationalities are buried in the war cemetery."

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 intention 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. ... Meldrum moves us in a bit closer to the action and provides an insight into the machinations of war." - Lee Grant, 2019