Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War – Giant Figures

The scale is the argument and it is not a gimmick. Enlarging a person by two and a half times makes every pore, tear, hair and thread of uniform visible at a size the eye cannot avoid – so a figure that would be a respectful bronze at life size becomes unbearably specific. Visitors regularly describe being unable to look away and unable to keep looking.

That is the opposite of what monumental scale usually does. Most large figures generalise; these individualise, because the detail survives the enlargement.

Twenty-four thousand hours is roughly twelve years of one person's full-time work, compressed into a team effort. It is by a considerable margin the most labour-intensive object in this catalogue.

The subject makes this a difficult entry for a collection largely made up of giant fruit, and it is included because the figures are unambiguously monumental, unambiguously public and among the most significant large-scale sculptural works either country has produced.

Access is through the museum, which is free to enter.