Exhibition Theme - Captivity

British women and children interned in a Japanese prison camp, Syme Road, Singapore

The interior of a wooden hut, with skeletal figures carrying out daily domestic activities. The British civilian population was interned in Syme Road when Singapore fell to the Japanese in 1942. After the camp was liberated, the inmates continued to live there, having nowhere else to go. However, the painting has an underlying theme of cleansing - the bath filled with water, the swathes of white sheets, and the draped washing suggest a quiet redemption from the dark days of imprisonment.

Oil on canvas 66 x 92 cm
Painted in Singapore, 1945
Imperial War Museum ART LD 5620

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