Digital Catalogue: 2024 Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award
Merilyn Fairskye
b. 1950 Melbourne VIC, lives Sydney NSW
Focus Infinity III (4.47am, 11 May 2024, Maralinga village), 2024
lightbox
edition 1/5
Image courtesy of the artist © Merilyn Fairskye
Artist Statement
Focus Infinity III is part of the ongoing Long Life Project (www.longlifeproject.com) that looks at the world through a nuclear lens. Current work is focused on Australia and its looming nuclear future.
On a recent visit to Maralinga, site of British nuclear tests in the 50s and 60s, I wanted to see what would be revealed if I photographed in darkness. I headed out into the village surrounds with my camera and tripod at 4.30am. The sky was speckled with stars. A pack of dingoes called to each other nearby. My settings were f/1.4, 00:10 exposure, ISO 1600, focus ∞.
About the Artist
Merilyn Fairskye’s art has been exhibited nationally and internationally in more than 175 curated solo and group exhibitions over the past forty years. Her practice traces the cultural, political and scientific webs that connect powerful events of real life, and encompasses a broad range of media and methods - from public artworks to video installations, artist films and photo media.
Her ongoing art project Long Life (2009-) looks at the world through the lens of the post-Cold War nuclear age. Since 2009 she has visited nuclear sites in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, USA, UK and Australia to make art.
Tom Blachford
Kaufmann's Mistress (Arrival)
Richard Glover
Invisible Histories I, II, III
Joachim Froese
Perseverance, Sol 693, Mars, from the series Turned Towards the Firmamant