Dark Harvest: The Long Shadow Cast: Contemporary Art Projects Commemorating World War 1 by Stephen Mulqueen and The Otago Sculpture Trust

Dark Harvest discusses the work of the Otago Sculpture Trust over the commemorative period between 2014 2018, and in particular the work of sculptor Stephen Mulqueen. Stephen in his own practice researched and made art work that sought to commemorate this time in a contemporary manner, as he felt that society was ready to reassess the ways that one should go about commemorating such a time 100 years on. When he was the Chairperson of the Otago Sculpture Trust Stephen set the Trust on a course which realised the exhibition In the Church Yard, installed in the grounds of First Church in Dunedin, on Anzac Day in 2015. Here, Dunedin sculptors made work that sought to memorialise this commemorative day in a contemporary manner, as was done again on Armistice Day in 2018. In between these two exhibitions the Trust also staged an exhibition and performance programme to commemorate the start of the Dada movement, which is not discussed in this publication. During this time a monumental project was planned and installed in Dunedin, the Archibald Baxter memorial, which was also to become the national memorial to conscientious objection. Initially this was an explorative, then expansive and well embraced project in the community; however, it was then shunted into the incidental margins where its aims and objectives were severely compromised. This publication discusses how this project, which set out with such good intentions, eventually became a memorial that reinforced old paradigms and became a sign of the long shadow cast from this time 100 years ago.