Les enfants dans une terre ancienne
Graphite on Arches paper
297mm x 420mm
1997
Collection of the artist
I had always wanted to create a picture honouring the men of the
Australian Light Horse and when I read the book "The Desert Column"
by Ion Idress, there was a passage in it which pricked the sides of my
intent.
Idress was a trooper in the Light Horse and kept an illegal diary
from which he wrote his book. The passage in question relates his eerie
experience of hallucinating whilst on sentry duty. So moved was I by
this passage that I immediately drew this picture of a trooper of the
Light Horse with the feint image of a French Crusader in the background.
The passage is reproduced below:
‘December 17th, 1917 – Stand To… Sun
Rising. On outpost again: thank heaven that night is over. It was so
queer, though I must write of last night while it is still fresh in my
memory…
I was sentry, staring out there, fighting to
keep my mind occupied and awake and alert. I don’t know why, but I began
thinking of all the ancient armies, wondering even what outpost
squadrons have camped in this very oasis. I started musing about those
old Phoenicians, and the Babylonians,, and the kings of Persia and the
Syrian cohorts. Of the terrible ‘skin ‘em alive’ horsemen, of the
disciplined Roman legions, the Saracens and the Crusaders and Arab
hordes. I wondered if the Moslems and the Christians and the Mohommedans
and Jews and idolaters and all the others mix together now! And I
wondered if the phantom soldiers watch over our battles and if they
gather in curious groups around the dying Anzacs. And I could see quite
plainly the spirits of the Anzacs arising and staring at the weird
soldiers gazing so silently back. And I could have sworn I heard, like a
clear whisper, the long-drawn gasp of an Anzac: “Who-th’-hell-are-you?”
I wondered if the phantom soldiers understood those Anzac swear words: I
was sure they listened attentively to their tales of repulse and
victory. I was positive of the attention on their faces and the
cocksureness of the Anzacs as they explained the mechanism of the
machine-gun, and artillery and flying machines.
And queerest of all, I seemed to hear the
Aussies boasting of gum trees, and the swag and of old Australia!”
|
