Merilyn Fairskye

Biography

Merilyn Fairskye's work is exhibited in art galleries, public spaces, electronic arts and film festivals within Australia and internationally and is represented in numerous Australian and international public collections. She has undertaken artist residencies in the US, Italy, France and Australia and has been the recipient of many Australia Council and Australian Film Commission grants, and a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship.

Research

Fairskye is interested in the challenges facing contemporary human existence, and the ambiguities and nuances in what may seem like straightforward situations. Previous works have engaged with the mapping of bodies, identities and terrains in uncontrolled technolgical environments such as the Pine Gap Defence facility ('Connected', 2003-04), the transitory domain of the international airport ('Stati d'Animo', 2005-11), and bodies of water ('Aqua', 2007-09). Her most recent body of work engaged with the 1986 explosion at Chernobyl, and the resonances of its after-life. This work includes single and multi-channel digital video works - Fieldwork l (Pripyat, Giza, Echo Point) (2009); Fieldwork ll (Chernobyl) (2009); Precarious (2011) and the Plant Life photo series (2011). This work drew on as it challenged traditions of documentary reportage. Investigations of place were used to talk about long-term issues affecting people and their environment. In each of these works, as with earlier works, temporality has been explored through a range of experiments that condense and/or dilate the experience of time. Her current research engages with flashpoint sites across the world.

Recent Exhibitions

Artists’ Alphabets, Museum of Modern Art, NY, USA, 2012

8th Al Jazeera International Documentary Film Festival, (nominee, Al Jazeera Documentary Channel Award for Long Film), Doha, Qatar, 2012

Cinema Verde, Florida, USA (Cinema Verité Award), 2012

17th International Contemporary Art Festival SESC_Videobrasil, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2011

New Age: New Media, Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing; Jinan Art Exhibition Centre; Songzhuang Art Museum, China; Federation Square, Melbourne, 2011

Precarious, Stills Gallery, Sydney (solo), 2011

(Australian) divergence, Sunshine International Museum, Songzhuan, China, 2010

2010 City of Hobart Art Prize, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart (Judges commendation)

My Favourite Australian, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra; ABC TV; Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney, December 2008 - May 2010

Figuring Landscapes: Moving image work from the UK and Australia, multiple venues including Tate Modern, London; Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney; ArtSway, New Forest; Chapter Arts, Cardiff; Brighton Cinemateque; FACT, Liverpool, UK, 2008 - 2010

Discovering the Other, Palace Museum, Taipei, 2007

24th Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival Kassel, Germany, 2007

The Arrival, Two Rooms, Auckland, New Zealand, 2006

Definition 2006: Digital Media Festival, Banff New Media Institute, Canada, 2006

Interesting Times – Focus on Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2005

Geopolitics of Media, ISEA, Centre for Contemporary Arts, Tallinn, Estonia, 2005

Connected, 33rd International Film Festival Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2005

Research Supervision

Nasser Palangi, PhD, ‘Art in Postwar Iran’

Ettore Siracusa, PhD, Archive Film Art

Awards & Grants

2010 Australia Council for the Arts, New Work Grant
2007 Australia Council for the Arts, New Work Grant
2005 Australian Film Commission, Production Grant
2004 Australian Film Commission, Travel grant
2003 Australia Council for the Arts, New Work Grant
2003 Australian Film Commission, Investment Grant
2001 Alice Springs Art Foundation, 31st Alice Prize

Professional Membership

Viscopy, Board member

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