Wait, Weep & be Worthy: Women, The Home Front & War

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91657

1 April – 22 May 2016

This exhibition brings the perspectives of contemporary artists to the role of women fighting on ‘the home front’ in World War I, reflecting on their role in society at the time, and the nature of that particular war. Though some women were involved as nurses and in other active service duties, the expected role of most was to manage the home and raise children, while dealing with shortages, their fears for the future, and the grief and trauma of losing loved ones. This exhibition will also include historical artwork and objects, and a look at the role of organisations like the Red Cross and the Country Women’s Association.

This exhibition came from the desire to make a meaningful contribution to the centenary of Anzac. Careful consideration was given to how this could be done without replicating the scholarship or exhibitions that have previously recognized the men and women who served in a direct way during WW1. Our research revealed that there has been little attention afforded to civilian Australian women on the home front …those so-called ordinary women who would creep into bed in the dark and weep for those sons, husbands, lovers, fathers and friends who would never return. It is their untold stories we wished to make known through Wait, Weep and be Worthy.

We asked 6 contemporary artists to respond to the theme. Each artist did so in very different ways; from examining loss or paying homage to the women who volunteered, to considering the impacts of diseases such as tuberculosis transmitted by returning soldiers or focusing on how the physical impact of conflict affects those that return as well as those they return too. These divergent approaches suggest that women’s responses to war are never homogeneous. Together with the artworks, you will also find original items belonging to women who lived the experience including World War I fashion and political posters giving us an insight into how women were perceived at the time.

Although women have not generally engaged in the physical act of combat, Australian women in World War 1 were clearly shaped by their war experience in profound ways. The women waiting at home on the other side of the world, experienced loss so wide-reaching there would barely have been an Australian family that was not touched by the war. Yet despite the anxiety of waiting and the anguish of loss Australian women dealt with the uncertainty, by involving themselves in a huge range of volunteer work. Unlike English women Australian women were unsuccessful in their attempts to help officially with the war except as nurses. If voluntary work could been seen as a measure of female enthusiasm for war then Australian women would be considered extraordinarily patriotic.

In our journey putting together this exhibition we found it is too simplistic to label the home front women as passive, powerless, stereotyped 'mothers' while the soldier men were the protectors. In exploring women’s experiences on the home front not only do we extend and enrich our understanding of the complex impact of war but we recognise the value, roles and indeed sufferings of all our grandmothers, mothers, and even old great aunts, whom Mary Gilmore tried to redeem from silence when she declared:

We are the women who mourn our dead.

Also on exhibition  Art in a Time of War: The Clint Collection. An exhibition of works from the Clint collection – 1915 - 1919.

Wait, Weep & be Worthy: Women, the Home Front and War is a Hawkesbury Regional Gallery exhibition.

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