Fragments of Service – A collaborative art project coming to RSL Victoria
Bek Herron, one of RSL Victoria’s ANZAC Day Ambassadors, has just launched a major new art project that will incorporate the work of veterans from RSL Sub-Branches across Victoria over the next two and a half years.
The project, called ‘Fragments of Service’, aims to represent the stories of service as told to the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide. Rebekah will be working with Victorian veterans in RSL Sub-Branches throughout Victoria, making almost 6,000 ceramic vessels each one representing one submission to the Royal Commission.
It is a subject close to her heart. When she left the Royal Australian Air Force after 21 years’ service as a nurse, the Royal Commission into Defence and Veterans Service was in the process of handing down its final report.
For Bek many of the stories contained in the almost 6000 submissions from current and former defence force personnel mirrored the reality of her daily life.
“I really loved being a part of the Defence Force,” Bek said. “Being discharged left me cut off from that life and from my sense of purpose as a person.”
Bek found a new sense of purpose after her medical discharge from the Air Force in 2023 through art.
“Finding art has helped me to redefine my identity in a new landscape away from the military. I am still a person who wants to help but I am also an artist. And I am using my artwork to tell stories, to support other veterans and their families.”
Bek is determined to continue her work telling the story of Australia’s veterans, even as media interest moves on and the Royal Commission becomes part of history.
“There were 5,889 individual submissions to the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide,” Bek said. “Every submission tells a unique story of the impact of service and sacrifice that must be remembered.”
Over the next two and a half years Bek will be visiting RSL Sub-Branches across the state to deliver workshops in which veterans create their own ceramic vessels – to contribute their own story to the larger exhibition.
“Together with other veterans I plan to create 5,889 ceramic vessels in these workshops.” Bek said “Each vessel is fired to 1000 degrees and then placed in a raku kiln, creating brilliant, dramatic and unique glazes reflecting the intense nature of military service and the individual stories that are the result of that service.”
Bek will begin visiting Sub-Branches in the suburbs of Melbourne from June, before moving into regional Victoria towards the end of the year.
“Many veterans leave service carrying stories they don’t know how to tell. Through this project, we’re creating opportunities for those stories to be expressed through art and shared with the broader community.”
The aim is to have all the vessels displayed in a major exhibition in 2028 at venues such as the Shrine of Remembrance, regional art galleries and the Australian War Memorial.
“This work commends those brave enough to share their stories and laments the absence of those who could not,” Bek said.
By the end of the project, she hopes to reach every corner of the state; to allow as many veterans and their families participate in the project as possible.
To kick start the project she has created a fundraising page to raise funds for workshop materials, travel, exhibition and other expenses. You can find out more about the project at the official website: https://www.fragmentsofservicethestorieswithin.au/
Donations came be made here: https://www.pozible.com/profile/bek-herron-artist
