PETER WHITEHEAD
Darkness
Mixed Media on Canvas
106 X 80cm
The battlefield at the beginning and end of conflict…
So eerie…so lonely
Unknowing of what is to come
Imbued with its own memories
Fractured
Yet holding together
As the landscape will always tell
The stories of courage and
Camaraderie even in darkness
My work Darkness is about the physical environment of the Gallipoli conflict, the unfamiliar landscape and a sense of foreboding. It is empty…almost…and dark on arrival and withdrawal.
In the abstract, it portrays arrival and withdrawal and not the bit in between. The likely emotions at those crucial times hit hard: loneliness, apprehension, and the immediate legacy of the conflict in its many forms: all driven by courage and loyalty and love of country. The empty landscape will always tell the many stories.
