Entitled Dead Man’s Penny,Michael Keighery’s latest exhibition and installation is dedicated to Frank Keighery, the artist’s great uncle who died at Gallipoli in 1915.
The project centres around the diary kept by Keighery’s great uncle, Frank Keighery, during Gallipoli. Written in Pitman shorthand, the diary was taken from Frank Keighery’s body after his death, and sent his parents in Australia.
The Keighary family received one of the 1.3 million memorial plaques issued to the families of all British soldiers. The plaques are inscribed with the wordsHe Died for Freedom and Honour,and quickly became ironically known as the theDead Man’s Penny.
Keighary’s exhibition includes an installation of 8,709 hand squeezed and moulded knuckles of clay, representing the number of Australian soldiers killed in Gallipoli in 1915. Also included in the exhibition are stylised forms of artilliary shells, a medium known astech art.Such a practice was undergone by soldiers during the war to pass the quiet times.
Dead Man’s Pennyopens Thursday November 26 from 6 – 8pm and runs to Tuesday December 22 at the Janet Clayton Gallery in Paddington.
