10 Minutes To Midnight

With 2015 being the 70th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs being dropped, 10 Minutes to Midnight marks Australia’s often disturbing atomic history.

The timely arts project featuring leading Australian and international guests  at The Block, QUT Creative Precinct from 27 July – 7 August.

Ten Minutes to Midnight is the result of a partnership between community arts partnerships and the Nuclear Futures creative team and atomic survivor communities. Of course the atomic tests conducted at Maralinga are a blot on the Australian psyche, and Teresa Crea, South Australian Artistic Director says, “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 the history and its legacy.”

People coming along to Ten Minutes to Midnight can see two twenty-minute immersive project installations, digital artworks, sculpture, contemporary photomedia, rare archival artefacts, footage and an exciting events program. It embodies humanitarian messages of hope and celebrates those atomic-affected communities, such as the Pitjantjatjara Anangu community in remote South Australia, who continue to strive for recognition and justice.

Some of the amazing works on offer include third-generation Japanese hibakusha (atomic survivor) Yukiyo Kawano’s life-size silk atomic bomb sculpture, crafted from pieces of silk kimono fabric and sewn together using strands of her own hair carrying DNA prints of the bomb. There’ll be a script workshop for QUT Drama students from leading playwright John Romeril, and Young Scholars masterclasses with digital artist, Linda Dement. Works by sound designer/composer Luke Harrald, projection and lighting designer Nic Mollinson and photographer Jessie Boylan also feature.

By Vicki Englund