Half-Life Collective
In August 2019, seven artists and friends travelled to Maralinga on Anangu Country, South Australia. We shared histories of documenting, campaigning and working alongside communities who have been impacted by the radioactive chain – from uranium mining to nuclear testing and the ‘management’ of radioactive waste – in this continent and beyond. We set out to learn from those impacted by nuclear tests at Maralinga and the radioactive fallout that spread all across this continent.
Within this nuclear reality whose lives are seen as disposable? Whose bodies are rendered collateral?
Did you know that Bladerunner was set in November 2019? (Link to Overland)
A collaboration between Alex Moulis, Andrea Steves, Crunch Kefford, Gem Romuld, Jessie Boylan, Linda Dement (code), Tessa Rex, Yul Scarf, Curated by Tessa Rex & Yul Scarf
Ridley Scott’s Bladerunner was set in a nuclear dystopia in November 2019.
and here we are.
The earth is powdered with radioactive isotopes, like icing sugar on a cake. A thin yellow line registers in our teeth, our bones and in the geologic strata. Nuclear dystopia is here and it is unequally distributed.
After a recent road trip to visit Anangu lands in and around Maralinga- one of three sites of British nuclear testing in Australia – this group of artists and activists consider the nuclear present and what it means to ‘record the future that is already here’*.
A room in Naarm (Melbourne) is awash with orange and blue light, party tassel curtains hang from the ceiling beams. Four fans push air around the space making the curtains dance and shimmer, agitating the light so that it spreads through the room. Headphones contain the sounds of Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara and English; stories of pain, loss, strength and resistance. In the corner, a desk invites visitors to play Atomic Mix’n’Match, a twisted game of nuclear universals overlaid on sites affected by the nuclear industrial complex. Seven ceramic balloons lie on the floor, cast in footage from Maralinga and Blade Runner.
Did you know that Blade Runner was set in November 2019? This show is an inhalation, calm and terrifying. It opens a space to contemplate a juncture in time, to consider Ridley Scott’s speculative future in relation to our current nuclear reality.
*Jasbir Puar, Terrorist Assemblages
A 5 minute Excerpt from 'Sci Cli' 2019 - A collaboration between Alex Moulis, Andrea Steves, Crunch Kefford, Gem Romuld, Jessie Boylan, Linda Dement (code), Tessa Rex, Yul Scarf.
Nuclear events destroy time; life fundamentally changes in an instant. Wind carries atomic survivor stories across place and time as it continues to spread radioactivity across the surface of former nuclear test sites and beyond. Nuclear events unfold forever: the concept of “before” and “after” a nuclear explosion is intangible, as there is no access to the before, and the after will never arrive.
Ridley Scott’s Bladerunner was set in a nuclear dystopia in November 2019.
and here we are.
The earth is powdered with radioactive isotopes, like icing sugar on a cake. A thin yellow line registers in our teeth, our bones and in the geologic strata. Nuclear dystopia is here and it is unequally distributed.
After a recent road trip to visit Anangu lands in and around Maralinga- one of three sites of British nuclear testing in Australia – this group of artists and activists consider the nuclear present and what it means to ‘record the future that is already here’*.
A room in Naarm (Melbourne) is awash with orange and blue light, party tassel curtains hang from the ceiling beams. Four fans push air around the space making the curtains dance and shimmer, agitating the light so that it spreads through the room. Headphones contain the sounds of Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara and English; stories of pain, loss, strength and resistance. In the corner, a desk invites visitors to play Atomic Mix’n’Match, a twisted game of nuclear universals overlaid on sites affected by the nuclear industrial complex. Seven ceramic balloons lie on the floor, cast in footage from Maralinga and Blade Runner.
Did you know that Blade Runner was set in November 2019? This show is an inhalation, calm and terrifying. It opens a space to contemplate a juncture in time, to consider Ridley Scott’s speculative future in relation to our current nuclear reality.
*Jasbir Puar, Terrorist Assemblages
A 5 minute Excerpt from 'Sci Cli' 2019 - A collaboration between Alex Moulis, Andrea Steves, Crunch Kefford, Gem Romuld, Jessie Boylan, Linda Dement (code), Tessa Rex, Yul Scarf.
Nuclear events destroy time; life fundamentally changes in an instant. Wind carries atomic survivor stories across place and time as it continues to spread radioactivity across the surface of former nuclear test sites and beyond. Nuclear events unfold forever: the concept of “before” and “after” a nuclear explosion is intangible, as there is no access to the before, and the after will never arrive.
