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For many years, war artist Murray Griffin kept a small wooden sculpture hanging on the wall of the stairs leading up to his studio in the Melbourne suburb of Eaglemont.<\/p>\n
It depicts the agony of an injured Malay woman brought into St Andrew\u2019s Cathedral during the Japanese invasion of Singapore.<\/p>\n
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Murray Griffin jnr with the sculpture that artist Murray Griffin carved from a chair leg, and Kate Griffin with his war artist permit.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Justin McManus<\/cite><\/p>\n The cathedral became a makeshift hospital, and Griffin was there to document history.<\/p>\n It is believed that during Griffin\u2019s subsequent three years as a prisoner of war in the Changi camp in Singapore, he carved the sculpture out of a chair leg.<\/p>\n Griffin\u2019s grandson, also named Murray Griffin, said the artist, who died in 1992, kept the sculpture on prominent view. \u201cIt was a daily reminder of all the suffering people had endured,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The sculpture is among more than 50 artworks, personal items and photographs that Murray Griffin jnr, with the support of his siblings Penny, Julia and Kate, has donated to Melbourne\u2019s Shrine of Remembrance.<\/p>\n Changi bunk house depicts POW friends gathering in Murray Griffin\u2019s quarters in Singapore. Griffin\u2019s head is at the top of the piece, on the right. <\/span><\/p>\n They include Griffin\u2019s war artist permit, a Japanese identity disc from Changi and a necklace made of Malayan coins.<\/p>\n An oil painting depicts Allied soldiers firing at Japanese troops invading the Malay Peninsula in tanks.<\/p>\n To paint the piece Changi bunk house<\/em>, Griffin used lampblack, a form of soot, to depict a group of Allied prisoners of war sitting around a table amid bunks and hanging laundry.<\/p>\n Murray Griffin jnr says it \u201cshows the efforts of the prisoners to retain their humanity and their comradeship in very inhumane conditions\u201d.<\/p>\n Detail from a self-portrait painted before Griffin left to serve overseas.<\/span><\/p>\n He also singles out a self-portrait Griffin painted before he left to serve overseas, which he finds a powerful symbol of those who served. \u201cIt was painted before an intense period of suffering. They went off, in their youth, and experienced terrible things.\u201d<\/p>\n Murray Griffin jnr is donating the collection to the Shrine following the death last year of his father, the artist\u2019s son Garry Griffin.<\/p>\n The works already hang in major galleries and at the Australian War Memorial, which holds Griffin\u2019s portrait of another Australian prisoner of war, the surgeon Sir Edward \u201cWeary\u201d Dunlop.<\/p>\n Murray Griffin jnr said he was \u201cthrilled and honoured\u201d that a rotating selection of the new Griffin donations will be on permanent display in the Shrine\u2019s World War II gallery.<\/p>\n Griffin\u2019s government war artist permit.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Justin McManus<\/cite><\/p>\n His sister Kate Griffin said she was proud of her grandfather, who was also known as Vaughan Murray Griffin. She said he was a loving and much-loved man.<\/p>\n She said his work showed an amazing ability to look outward, at others, despite what he might be going through in the war.<\/p>\n A war artist\u2019s role, she said, was \u201cto pick out the humanity among the chaos, and remind us of the struggles of war, but also to point out the resilience and the triumph of the human spirit\u201d.<\/p>\n Shrine curator Neil Sharkey said war artists \u201chave integrated a sensory and emotional dimension to our understanding of warfare that isn\u2019t readily incorporated into written histories, photography or documentary film.<\/p>\n \u201cMurray Griffin is unique among Australia\u2019s official war artists in that he is the only one to have shared the experiences of the 22,000 Australian prisoners of war captured by the Japanese in the Pacific during the Second World War.<\/p>\n \u201cHis work celebrates the valour of the men who battled the Japanese in Malaya and Singapore, before their capture, and their steadfastness, endurance and ingenuity afterwards.\u201d<\/p>\n Griffin\u2019s work is part of the Shrine\u2019s 11 Days of Remembrance, running until Remembrance Day on November 11, focusing on how poetry, literature, music and art express the impact of military conflict.<\/p>\n Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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