Looking Both Sides: Mike Parr’s artwork

Public and private memory

Parr was initially hesitant when invited to serve on the commission.

“I felt a little worried, just because I thought it was something that I had strong opinions about, feelings about, thoughts about for a lot of my life,” Parr said.

“The military thing was never something I would normally want to be associated with… because it wasn’t really thought of in my family growing up.”

Parr’s uncle fought in World War I and his father served in New Guinea during World War II.

“(My father) looked down on the RSL and didn’t want to march on Anzac Day.

“I thought it was completely inappropriate for me to accept (the invitation) and then I thought, well, maybe I need to think about it.”

The result was the Invisible Sun (the other side). This double-sided print represents the different ways we remember the war, the divisions between public and private memory and the formal and the forgotten.

“War is a kind of psychotic collapse of a culture… because it’s when there’s this enormous separation. The community comes together and confronts the other, and the other quickly ceases to be something you can understand, even ceases to be human beings,” Parr said.

One side features a bold red print reminiscent of wartime ephemera, with a line from Ode to memory: “At sunset and in the morning we will remember them.” The phrase repeats itself, decreasing in size until it evaporates from the page. Parr described the technique as a melancholic device as well as a reflection on the passing of memory across generations.

On the other side of the artwork, a hand-engraved portrait provides a deeply personal account of the war and violence endured by Parr’s family. His handwritten stories about his father and uncle are scrawled into the artwork, highlighting the devastating and long-lasting effects of the service.

“My father’s brother Edgar fought in the First World War. He was sent home from Egypt with “sand on his lungs,” the artwork reads.

“His last years were spent in isolation in a boarding house in Darlinghurst.

“(He) was a first-class cricketer before the war and my father said he could have played for the States.”

Art in conflict

The Anzac Centenary Print Portfolio is touring Australia from 2022 as part of the Art in Conflict exhibition, which features over 70 diverse and contemporary responses to the war from the Australian National War Memorial Collection.

“The portfolio was included in Art in conflict as part of the ‘historical reflections’ theme, which shows that an important part of our collection is how contemporary artists react to historical events, often revealing aspects of it that have not otherwise been recorded in history or are not well known,” a said Dr Anthea Gunn.

Getting the artwork ready to go on tour was no simple matter.

The two-sided nature of the print presented a challenge to conservationists, who wanted to be able to display both sides to the public.

Senior Paper Conservator Gajendra Rawat devised an alternative technique to mount, matte and frame the work and allow it to be displayed.

“We didn’t want the artwork to be sandwiched between two sheets of Perspex (acrylic glass) because the paper used for printing has a matte surface. Instead, we created a technique where three sheets of Perspex were used for the hinges and mat.”

“A special frame was designed with grooves on the side where the entire package was slotted. This gave enough strength to the frame and also protected the artwork.”

On tour in Australia until 2026

Conservators will have the artwork ready to go back on tour for new audiences to see.

“Parr’s is one of my favorite works in the portfolio,” Gunn said.

“It really resonated with visitors Art in conflict; how on the one hand there is a more messy personal history of the long intergenerational consequences of war on families, and the other shows the more official way this is remembered or recognized in national commemorations. It really captures a lot of people’s experiences: of sharing the sense of pride and honor of communities, but also the lived reality of what everyday trauma can mean.”

Art in Conflict will open at Glasshouse Port Macquarie on November 9, 2024.