8 MONTHS of WAR

This is where you can add to the online visual and note version of this installation. This online archive will continue after the installation ends in December 2009. Feel free to browse through the other images and notes here and also see the current exhibition as it grows at the exhibition space Detached, in Tasmania’s capital city of Hobart, Australia.

When you enter, there are eight categories WAR, EXTINCTION, CHILD, THE WEST, REFUGEE, FOOD, LOVE and RELIGION, representing the themes of 8 Months Of War. There is also the Wreath and Shrine room that is shown here in its growth at Detached. Four web cams present the installation as it grows.

Enter and chose a category to explore the Public Archive. It is easy to post a comment or picture: Follow the prompts as you wave the curser over the form at the bottom of each category, add your name/location, a .jpg or other image URL and a comment, and/or post a link.

8 MONTHS of WAR

In May 2009, artist Brook Andrew undertook an eight-month residency at DETACHED in collaboration with the local and web community. During this time the project will slowly develop into an interactive archive that explores personal and popular ideas of war. This project was inspired by both local Tasmanian history and the influence of American media and archives discovered during his recent residency with the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York.

8 Months Of War: A Public Archive is presented at DETACHED from May to December 2009. Occupying this deconsecrated colonial church in the heart of Hobart, Brook Andrew views it as a sacred place in which to reflect on conflict in the world. The artist invokes the site's heritage by encouraging visitors to bring and lay flowers at the entrance of the installation, or to light a candle at the shrine. From this threshold, visitors enter the gallery spaces.

Inviting visitors to take an active role, they are encouraged to add such materials as newspaper cuttings, hand-written stories, photographs and photocopies. Visitors may write a message, post a family portrait on the wall or write a story. Then, with a length of red string, they link oneidea to another and trace a line through the space. By interacting with this growing public archive, visitors play an active role in the evolving life of this work.

Brook Andrew envisages 8 Months Of War: A Public Archive to be a visual metaphor for the disasters inflicted on our planet and its occupants. The role of memory and the commemorative acts performed here are essential elements within this growing memorial. The final archive, in effect, becomes a time capsule. A sea of red cotton cuts lines through the multitude of visitors' personal comments - as if a mine/mind field or barbed wire - encircling the thoughts and experiences of war and conflict. Below, wreaths, flowers and candles either commemorate or protest.