Nuclear Futures

Atomic Fringe event in Balaklava February, 2015

A team of leading Australian artists brought South Australia’s chilling atomic history to life in a dynamic transmedia event premiering in Balaklava for the 2015 Adelaide Fringe Festival. 10 Minutes to Midnight audiences experienced Australia’s atomic test stories via an immersive projection, new digital artworks, and an exhibition of contemporary photomedia, rare archival artifacts, and footage. Run over four days, across three venues, the multi-arts event included curriculum-linked schools activities and speakers program. See highlights.

Come and experience an extraordinary event!

About the Production

10 Minutes to Midnight sits at the creative junction between historical fact, eye-witness testimony and artistic interpretation.

The original and experimental artworks showcased in 10 Minutes to Midnight respond to the slow public reveal and long-term legacies arising from the British run atomic experiments at Emu Field and Maralinga in South Australia, and Monte Bello in Western Australia, during the 1950s and 60s.

10 Minutes to Midnight is the culmination of a collaborative partnership between the creative artist team and representatives from Australian atomic survivor communities. The creative team includes Award-winning artists Teresa Creas, John Romeril, Luke Harrald, Nic Mollison, Jessie Boylan and Linda Dement.

Teresa Crea, South Australian Artistic Director leading the dramaturgy and conceptual development for the Ten Minutes to Midnight installation comments:
“So powerful were the events of Maralinga and so profound their impact on us as artists  – that it felt necessary to intertwine the real events with our response as artists.  All of us remain implicated in this history and its legacy.”

One local source of inspiration is nuclear veteran and whistleblower Avon Hudson. Avon is a leading public campaigner for nuclear veterans’ rights, a writer, and previously long serving member of Wakefield Regional Council. It was in Avon’s Balaklava living room, where piled high is a campaigner’s treasure trove of significant and rare archival material, that the 10 Minutes to Midnight production began one year ago.

As well as exploring the horror of the atomic age, 10 Minutes to Midnight also embodies humanitarian messages of hope, celebrating the resilient communities and individuals who continue to pursue recognition and justice, and courageously share their stories for the benefit of future generations.

The timing of the premiere coincides with the 70-year anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings, events that continue to impact through long-term genetic damage from nuclear radiation.

For more information contact:  info@nuclearfutures.org

                                                       
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.