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 fragility of human existence, and the ambiguities and nuances in what may seem like straightforward situations.
Her recent works have engaged with the mapping of bodies, identities and terrains in uncontrolled technological environments such as the Pine Gap Defence facility ('Connected', 2003–04), the transitory domain of the international airport ('Stati d’Animo', 2005–07), and bodies of water ('Aqua' 2007–).
Her current work engages with a near-cataclysmic event – the 1986 explosion at Chernobyl – and the resonances of its afterlife within and outside of post-Soviet Ukraine. Chernobyl is a metaphor for both the horror of uncontrolled nuclear power and for state secrecy and deception. It has ongoing, real consequences. This work explores what remains unresolved and unfinished.
She is using video and audio material gathered from her trips to Ukraine in 2009–10. In 2009 she exhibited the first two of these works - 'Fieldwork I' (three-channel video) and 'Fieldwork II' (single-channel video) – in a solo exhibition at Stills Gallery, Sydney.

Recent Exhibitions

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 - 10

Discovering the Other, Palace Museum, Taipei, July - August 2007

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

The Arrival, Two Rooms, Auckland NZ, July 2006

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

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

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

Connected, 33rd International Film Festival Rotterdam, Rotterdam, January 2005

13th Videobrasil Electronic Arts Festival, Sesci Pompeia, Sao Paulo, Brazil, August 2001

Research Supervision

Eva Marosy-Weide, PhD, ‘Sense of place’

Ivan Bulijan, MFA, ‘At home, where’

Eduardo Kairuz, MFA, ‘Double Discourse: dismantling contemporary ideas on progress’

Nasser Palangi, MFA, ‘Art in postwar Iran’

Awards & Grants

2007 Australia Council for the Arts: New Work Grant
2005 Australian Film Commission: Production Grant, Stati d'Animo
2004 Australian Film Commission: Travel grant
2003 Australia Council for the Arts: New Work Grant, 'Connected'
2003 Australian Film Commission: Investment Grant, Connected'
2001 Alice Springs Art Foundation: 31st Alice Prize, 'Eye Contact

Professional Membership

Viscopy, Board member

All material is copyright of the author, and written permission must be obtained for any reproduction in whole or in part.
For more information see the University of Sydney copyright disclaimer.