Merilyn Fairskye

Research

Merilyn Fairskye creates artworks for gallery and public contexts using photo media, video and installation. Fairskye has a longstanding interest in the relationship between the still and the moving image. Her recent works have engaged with the mapping of bodies, identities and terrains in globally networked environments such as Pine Gap Defence facility and the international airport, and most recently in bodies of water.

Her current series, Fieldwork (2009-) draws on associations between diverse locations through a framework of time governed by myths and legends, losses and absences. As with her recent works, Stati d’Animo (2005-07) and Aqua (2007-), time and duration come into play in different ways in Fieldwork I (Echo Point, Giza, Pripyat) (2009) and Fieldwork II (Chernobyl) (2009). These locations resonate with some of the central issues around people, technology and the environment.

Exhibitions

100, Stills Gallery, Sydney, 2009

Figuring Landscapes: moving image work from the UK and Australia, multiple venues (2008-2009) including Tate Modern, London; Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney; ArtSway, New Forest; Chapter Arts, Cardiff; Brighton Cinemateque; FACT, Liverpool, UK, 2009

My Favourite Australian, National Portrait Galllery, Canberra; ABC TV, 2009

Video Ground: Recent moving image works from Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand, Experimental Film Festival, Bangkok; Chicago Film Studies Center, Chicago; and touring, 2009

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

States of Mind, Artspace, Sydney, 2007

Out of Place, Stills Gallery, Sydney, 2007

Discovering the Other, Palace Museum, Taipei, 2007

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

Definition 2006: Digital Media Festival, The Banff Centre, Alberta, Canada, 2006

15th Brisbane International Film Festival, Brisbane, 2006

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

Stati d’Animo 2005, Stills Gallery, Sydney, 2005

Geopolitics of Media, ISEA, Centre for Contemporary Arts, Tallinn, Estonia, 2004

Prospective, 50th Oberhausen Film Festival, Oberhausen, Germany, 2004

Connected, Stills Gallery, Sydney; Araluen Galleries, Alice Springs, 2003

WRO 01/9th International Media Art Biennale, Wroclaw, Poland, 2001

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

Contamination - Microwave Festival 2000 - Hong Kong Space Museum, Hong Kong, 2000

Commissions

Tide, Rialto Square, Manly, commissioned by Manly Council, 2001

Sea (Kurnell), Art at Work Program, Sydney International Terminal, Mascot, 2000-2006

Material World Railway Square, Sydney, commissioned by The City of Sydney, 1999

Research Supervision

In progress

Eva Marosy-Weide PhD, 'Sense of Place'

Ivan Bulijan MVA, 'At home, where?'

Eduardo Kairuz MVA, 'Double Discourse: dismantling contemporary ideas on progress'

Professional Membership

Board member, Viscopy

Awards & Grants

2007 Australia Council for the Arts: New Work Grant
2005 Australian Film Commission: Production Grant
2005 Australian Film Commission: Travel Grant
2003 Australia Council for the Arts: New Work Grant
2002 Australian Film Commission: Investment Grant
2001 Alice Springs Art Foundation: 31st Alice Prize

Public Collections

Alice Springs Art Foundation; University of Technology, Sydney; Parliament House, Canberra; Museum of Modern Art (Franklin Furnace Archive), New York; Getty Center, Santa Monica; Powerhouse Museum, Sydney; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Australian War Memorial, Canberra; National Gallery of Victoria; Queensland Art Gallery; Queensland University of Technology; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; University of NSW, Sydney; Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Ballarat; Auckland University, New Zealand; University of Tasmania; Art Gallery of Western Australia; Art Gallery of New South Wales.

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