Another great art exhibition

The Mosman Art Gallery is one of the jewels of Mosman with both its permanent collection and its great exhibitions.

On Saturday morning, I had the great pleasure of opening our latest exhibition, Tokkotai: Australian and Japanese artists on War and the Battle of Sydney Harbour in a former naval fuel tank at Headland Park.

This highly innovative art exhibition revisits the historic attack by three Japanese midget submarines arriving in our Harbour on 31 May 1942.

To mark the 75th anniversary, Mosman Art Gallery worked with six artists (Michelle Belgiorno, Ken Done, Jennie Feyen, Sue Pedley, Miku Sato and Gary Warner) to interpret and respond to the remarkable story.

The exhibition is housed in a fitting site – an industrial scale fuel tank built and camouflaged against air attack during World War II, from which, looking through the trees, you can see the Harbour. The atmosphere inside the tank is dramatic and the whole show is deeply moving.

I strongly recommend visiting this compelling suite of installations and immersive experiences.

Our thanks are due to the whole Art Gallery staff and to our Gallery volunteers who are assisting until the event ends on 12 June.

This is the second time that Council has partnered with the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust to utilise this unique space, following the national award winning Bungaree’s Farm project in 2015.

Tokkotai will be followed by another significant international exhibition, the Halo Halo Bayanihan Philippines Art Project.

Halo Halo, which is a major commission of contemporary installation artworks by two acclaimed Philippine artists, is the Mosman element of the Bayanihan exhibition, which is taking place at venues across Sydney.

For more details on these two impressive exhibitions, please visit: mosmanartgallery.org.au.