#maralinga

Never forget

Atomic blast during Operation Buffalo nuclear tests, Maralinga, South Australia On 27 September 1956

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It's with disappointment that I share the news that my public installation 'An English Garden' has been taken down early, following complaints and threats made by a group of conservative local Councillors in Southend, UK. These individuals (one of whom is a former UKIP Councillor) took issue with a plaque included in the work, which critically reflected upon Britain's nuclear history and colonial legacy - that is, instead of celebrating Britain's nuclear capabilities, the work highlighted Britain's devastating nuclear tests on Indigenous Lands in Australia during the 1950s and 60s. We were given a 48 hour ultimatum to remove the work before the Council would intervene to censor the “offending” plaque, and subject the work and associated arts communities to a national media campaign that would frame the work as “a direct far left wing attack on our History, our People and our Democratically Elected Government.” Seemingly said government and its global scale nuclear arsenal was not considered robust enough to endure the airing of historical facts and critique via a rose garden art installation. To clarify, An English Garden consisted of a garden of Rosa floribunda “Atom Bomb” (a rare species of cold-war era rose) and “Cliffs of Dover” Iris. Additionally, brass plaques highlighting the site's proximity to the facilities where Britain assembled its early atomic weaponry in the 1950s were installed on benches. The work aimed to hold space for the contemplation of British colonial legacy - an unavoidably complicated legacy which contains such seeming opposites as rose gardens and enduring nuclear violence. What remains of 'An English Garden' now, is a series of empty garden beds. Over the coming months, I’ll be working with others in Southend and Australia to transform this void into a space for further dialogue.

So a bunch of conservatives decided a garden commemorating the atomic tests at Maralinga was too offensive so they had it uprooted. They nuked us, or rather, they drove the Pitjantjatjara people from their land and nuked it (I've held a hunk of glass formed by the nuclear bomb melting the sand, it looked like a gobbet of phlegm), but we can't even have a rose garden because that's an "attack on the People". A bunch of Australian soldiers got leukemia after being ordered to crawl through the fallout to test whether that would cause leukemia, but what's really offensive is the plaque mentioning that it happend.

Merylin Fairskye (b 1950) Australia

Focus Infinity III (4.47am, 11 May 2024, Maralinga Village) (2024)

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exhibited: HOTA, Gold Coast, Queensland