“Under a Steel Sky”
Susan Fereday
20 June → 12 July 2008

Under a Steel Sky is a collection of found snapshots, digitised and magnified by Susan Fereday.

All the photos were taken in America during the 1950-60s from the interior of cars. Remarkably consistent in mood, aesthetics, subject matter and implied narrative, these snapshots come from entirely separate sources. Most would fit seamlessly into Robert Frank’s art-documentary series, The Americans (1958). Originally made neither as critique nor nostalgia, they present the zeitgeist of American post-war consumer culture as a kind of slumber. The American Dream is a journey through landscape that appears – always, securely – on the other side of surface.

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