Hellfire Pass; Lest We Forget
Acrylic on stretched canvas (unframed)
42cm (W) x 61cm (H) x 1.5cm (D)
Acrylic on stretched canvas (unframed)
42cm (W) x 61cm (H) x 1.5cm (D)
Acrylic on stretched canvas (unframed)
42cm (W) x 61cm (H) x 1.5cm (D)
NOTE form the artist: proceeds from this painting will be donated to the Bamboo School in Kanchanaburi. Many of the children cared for by this organisation are victims of yet another war.
This painting holds special significance for me. When I painted it I had recently been to Kanchanaburi, in Thailand, with my mother to visit the last resting place of her father and to retrace his steps to the site where he was sent to work on the infamous Railway. Our pilgrimage took us further north to the Dutch POW camp at Rin Tin, but on the way we stopped to walk through the Konyu Cutting, or “Hellfire Pass”, and reflect on the Australians who had shared a similar ordeal.
The name "Hellfire Pass" was a reference to the flaming torches which lit up the limestone mountainside as shifts of weary men worked through the night to speed up the completion of the railway, deemed “fit for work” in spite of fatigue, tropical ulcers, cholera and undernourishment.
Today, looking out over the beautiful Kwae Noi Valley from the top of the mountain, their ordeal is hard to imagine but deeply moving to reflect on.
Lest we forget.