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April 25, 2005
At Gallipoli in 1915 Australians had high hopes, but it all ended in devastation. It was a mission not fully concluded: a retreat with nothing gained in a military sense.
A myth has been woven around it, based on celebrating the failed assault on Turkey in 1915 as the birthplace of the nation and developing the national tradition of extolling bravery.
This processes of national myth-making involves making the best of a bad situation; of glorifying the victims, the losers, the people who tried hard but didn't quite make it. Hence we have the coupling of sending Australians to their death, Australian heroism, and British military incompetence.
Today the mythmaking is expressed in stump political speeches full of cliches about heroism, ultimate sacrifices and war.
Sidney Nolan, Gallipoli, 1950
One theme of Nolan's work is failure and the trauma of war. He links the Australian mythopoiesis with Greek mythology to question the Legend wrapped around the volunteer citizen Diggers:
Sir Sidney Nolan,Anzac Swimming at Gallipoli, mixed media
I cannot find many images from Nolan's Gallipoli series online.
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