Signing off on the State is an account of
signifying and representational practices that privilege
particular histories in Australia to ensure that select
values forming and informing national identity are mediated.
It critiques an official rhetoric that attempts to construct
a stainless and heroic national narrative within Australia's
military history. It can be read as a contextual analysis
between Allerding's visual art practice, the state
sanctioned rituals of Anzac Day, and the contested
representation of frontier warfare in the National Museum
Australia and the Australian War Memorial. Drawing on the
idea of the artist as a node of social relations, Allerding
provides an overview of the historical relationship between
the individual and the collective negotiating with the
dominant structures of religion and the state. This book
provides a resource of historical images pertaining to
frontier conflict in Australia and should be a useful primer
for anyone interested in the symbolic language of nation
building.