“Life lifted into the sky” and other Maralinga paintings.

The confronting history of atomic tests and other nuclear industry in South Australia has never been more important. These stories need preserving; and they are relevant now, as South Australia debates new nuclear waste dumps.

At Yalata in far western SA, a group of 15 women, from three generations, have recently produced a signifciant set of paintings. It is a collection arising spontaneously from a community arts workshop.

The paintings need to be framed, photographed, described and transported, ready for exhibition, and here's where you can help. Can you make a donation today?      (Fundrasing campaign closes on Saturday 25 June.) 

Here are some of the paintings:

"Life Lifted into the Sky" Mima Smart	"Maralinga" Ann Marie Woods	"Death" Alinta Smart

The workshop was initiated via the 'Black Mist Burnt Country' touring exhibition (http://blackmistburntcountry.com.au). It was facilitated by Creative Producer Pam Diment, and supported by Complete Personnel who provided materials. These photogaphs of the paintings above, and below, are by Pam Diment.

There are 17 works in all, acrylic on canvas, and they depict the story of British nuclear testing in the 1950s and 60s, and the subsequent impacts on land and people. They follow in the tradition of artists from Maralinga communities who over the years have painted ‘The Bomb’ as a means of passing on the story to younger generations.

Together the paintings tell of the immediate impacts of the bombs, and the forced migration that dispersed and splintered the desert families and led to the establishment of new Anangu communities.

There is an opportunity to exhibit the paintings in Adelaide, representing the voices of people that really should be heard, in the current debate about nuclear industry in South Australia. The paintings will be on display at Tandanya Arts Centre as part of a showcase in September-November, organised by Alphaville arts company, Tandanya and Yalata Community.

We are hoping you can make a donation.

Here are the titles of the paintings. Together they seem to summarise the story.

“Life Lifted into the sky”..... “Maralinga”..... “Loud Thunder Maralinga Mamu Train”..... “Maralinga Poison Munda”.....     “Death”..... “Poisoned Munda”..... “All Finished Gone”..... “Anangu Tjuta (Many people) at Ooldea Tank”..... “Taken From Munda (Country)”..... “They Take us Away”..... “Taken from Ngura”..... “White Fella take us”..... “The Big Camp”..... “Bush Church” 

Glenda Ken	Mary Ann Finlay	Missy Windlass

Your donation will assist a program of creative arts with atomic survivor commuities

This paintings project is part of a wider program facilitated by Alphaville community arts company in partnership with Yalata community. Our projects link creative artists atomic survivor communities in Australia, Japan and the UK, to make artworks that expose the legacy of the nuclear age while celebrating the resilience of commuities that have experienced the bomb. We work on the basis that, sadly, the future is already colonised by nuclear impacts, with radiation half lives measured in tens of thousands of years. But how do we want this challenging 'nuclear future' to unfold? It already presents us with a 'slow emergency', so is more nuclear industry the way to go? In our projects we believe the answers can be found in Australia's atomic history.  

You can see more about Alphaville's projects at the links below.

https://www.facebook.com/NuclearFuturesArts/

http://nuclearfutures.org/blog-posts/

http://nuclearfutures.org/maralingas-long-shadow-book-release/

http://nuclearfutures.org/peace-gift-nagasaki/

And we invite you to visit the website of 'Black Mist Burnt Country' touring exhibition, with which Alphaville collaborates: http://blackmistburntcountry.com.au

All proceeds of this crowdfunding campaign will go towards exhibition costs. 

Your donations will cover materials and labour for framing paintings, and also photographs plus transport and storage.

The funding situation is like this:

The production costs for the paintings are already covered. 

To preserve the works and show them at their best, they need to be framed.

• We have a quote of around $130 to frame each painting, making a total of approximately $2,300.
• We would also like to display a set of photos from the workshop, showing the artists with their work in progress. That would add another $500 for mounting of the photographs.
• Finally, we are allowing $500 to cover transport and storage costs.

So that’s how we arrived at the figure of $3,300 for this crowdfunding campaign.

What do you think?  Can you help? Your donation will be put to good use, and greatly appreciated.

Donors who give $100 or more will receive a free copy of the exhibition catalogue which will contain colour images and the full story of each painting. Value $25.

Note:  Later this year we will also be negotiating for the sale of the whole collection, as a means of raising funds for Yalata painters to continue their work. If you would like to express interest, please contact us directly.

The biggest challenge in our work is maintaining momentum for arts projects, in the light of limited local resources and changing government funding arrangements. But a crowdfunding campaign like this one is not only about money. It spreads the word about important community based projects. These address the most significant challenge of them all... to allow communities to explore their history through the creative arts as a means of addressing current social and environmental issues.