Commissioning works of art for a public collection requires careful consideration – and even more so when the subject relates to the complex histories of war. The Australian War Memorial has commissioned contemporary artists since 1916 to respond to the Australian experience of conflict, both as official war artists, who are deployed to witness war firsthand, and to explore and interpret the contemporary legacy of past events. The Memorial has recently collaborated with the National Museum of Singapore on an exchange residency, commissioning responses to the shared legacy of the Second World War in Singapore and Australia. Debbie Ding spent four weeks in residence at the Memorial and Angela Tiatia at the National Museum, creating works that bring an international perspective to this history. This presentation will consider these and other recent commissions at the Memorial, drawing out the curatorial considerations of such projects and how we work with artists.

Speaker: Dr Anthea Gunn was appointed Curator of Art at the Australian War Memorial in January 2014. She has worked as a social history curator at the National Museum of Australia (2008-13) and has published in the Journal of Australian Studies, the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art, Museum and Eyeline magazines, the Canberra Times and The Conversation, amongst others. She has worked on exhibitions including the Landmarks gallery and Glorious Days: Australia 1913 at the NMA and the online exhibition Art of Nation at the AWM. She has managed numerous contemporary art commissions for the Memorial.

Venue: Grey Projects, 6B Kim Tian Road, Singapore 169246

When: 27 Sep 2017, 6pm - 7.30pm

By: Grey Projects