CANCELLED Recovering The Past: Floor Talk with Trudie Leigo
CANCELLED Recovering The Past: Floor Talk with Trudie Leigo
This timely photographic exhibition documents the physical and psychological consequences of the Great War. Comprising a series of 25 thought provoking images accompanied with poignant quotes sourced from Australia’s archives, the exhibition lays bare the plight of Australia’s war widows, grieving mothers and traumatised returning soldiers. Also documented, the Belgian army’s ongoing collection of the lethal legacy of unexploded ordinance from the Great War, routinely unearthed in Belgium’s fields, construction sites and backyards to this day.
Discover more about Recovering The Past by joining Touring Producer Trudie Legio for a floor talk.
About the Artist
London based artist Ian Alderman has worked as a professional photographer for over 25 years, which has given him the extensive experience and broad, practical knowledge required to produce a technically challenging project such as Recovering The Past.
Alderman was allowed unprecedented access to photograph previously undocumented high-risk toxic environments for this project. The trust afforded to the artist by DOVO-SEDEE has enabled him to produce this unique study of the relentless and potentially lethal work of this permanently based, bomb disposal team on the Great War’s former Western Front.
Produced with the centenary commemorations of the Great War and Armistice at its heart, this complex non-commissioned project of over six years in the making is the result of the artist’s own long-term vision and dedication. This ambitious project work reflects his desire to raise the profile of a tragic and less-appreciated consequence of war, a plight that has afflicted his own family:
“In August 1916, my great-grandfather – Henry George Spearing – became a casualty of the battle of the Somme. Shot in the spine and paralyzed from the waist down, the injury was his alone, although its consequences were not.
Invalided home - and till his death in 1936 - Henry was nursed on a permanent basis by my great grandmother Louisa-Jane. Despite having never gone near the Western Front itself, for the 20 years following Henry’s return, Louisa-Jane’s own now compromised life had itself become a consequence of the war”.
Their shared experience was the inspiration for this project
Ian Alderman 2019
About the Touring Producer
Touring Producer Trudie Leigo joined forces with Ian Alderman in 2018 to bring Recovering The Past to Australia for a national tour. Trudie is an independent curator who works in the arts, media and events. Based in the Queensland city of Bundaberg, Trudie has worked in the art galleries and museums industry for over 17 years. Trudie runs her own arts business Trudie Leigo Projects where she undertakes a number of creative arts projects, including touring exhibitions around the country.