Seconds to Midnight

by Min Simankevicius and Steve Warburton

Eighty years ago, the atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki set a new precedent in modern warfare and human suffering.

Local artists Steve Warburton and Min Simankevicius both have responded to the events with recent artworks, retelling the story. 

By utilising symbolic and iconic imagery they have constructed multi-layered works in oil and photographic manipulation which seek to comprehend the unfathomable. Their works bear witness to a chapter in history that casts a long shadow upon us and poignantly remind us of the continuous existential threat humanity is facing.

About the Artists

Steven Warburton is an artist based in Emerald, Victoria, who has exhibited extensively throughout Melbourne and beyond since completing a Fine Arts degree at Monash University. His paintings and drawings are held in private and public collections across Australia and internationally.

Warburton's practice explores the complexities of a rapidly changing world, questioning how humanity is evolving or perhaps devolving in response to social and environmental shifts. Drawing inspiration from human history, the natural environment, and stories and photographs from his family's past, his work reflects on change, memory and the forces that shape our collective experience. Through evolving imagery and layered narratives, Warburton creates works that invite contemplation of both personal and universal transformations.

Mindaugas (Min) Simankevicius is a photo-painter and collagist whose practice operates at the intersection of image, memory, and cultural construction. Working through the appropriation, disruption, and reassembly of photographic material, he interrogates accepted narratives and the mechanisms through which meaning becomes fixed. His works seek to destabilise familiar readings, exposing the ambiguities, omissions, and assumptions embedded within collective memory.

Central to his practice is an exploration of inherited histories and the tension between personal and national identity. Born in Australia during the Cold War to Baltic parents displaced by Soviet occupation, Simankevicius occupies a position between cultures, histories, and systems of belonging. This dual perspective informs a body of work that examines migration, myth-making, ideological inheritance, and the continual rewriting of historical narratives.

Historical Context

‘Bomb’s away’ - at 8:15am on 6 August 1945 the United States of America dropped an atomic bomb on the unexpecting city of Hiroshima. The destruction of the city was complete. Tens of thousands of people died instantly, many more in weeks and months to come.

Through acts of visual reconstruction, Simankevicius creates works that function as speculative propositions rather than conclusions, inviting viewers to reconsider established truths and engage with the instability of history, memory, and representation.

Three days later a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki forcing the Japanese Government to surrender and bringing about the end of WWII in the Pacific. These were the only times atomic weapons have ever been used.

Since 1945, over two thousand nuclear bombs have been tested globally, atmospherically and underground. Nine countries possess nuclear weapons that can destroy the world many times over: USA, Russia, Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea.

Despite an interactional agreement to disarm expressed in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (1968) and a United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (2019) these states continue to maintain, diversify and modernise their nuclear arsenals.

Following WWII, the independent organisation Bulletin of Atomic Scientists invented the Doomsday Clock, a symbolic measure of the likelihood of human-made global catastrophe. As of 27 January this year, the clock stands at 85 seconds to midnight. The closest it has ever been.

Hiroshima & Nagasaki Commemoration: Artists' Talk & Film Screening

Sunday 9 August | 2.00–3.30pm | Free

Join us for an afternoon of reflection marking the anniversaries of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima (6 August) and Nagasaki (9 August) in 1945.

The event will open with an introduction by Cr Peter McIlwain, followed by an artists' talk featuring Min Simankevicius and Steve Warburton, who will discuss their works currently on display in the Burrinja Foyer.

The afternoon concludes with a screening of the acclaimed documentary An Ordinary Insanity: Daniel Ellsberg on Nuclear Threat (29 minutes), directed by Judith Ehrlich.

Before becoming the renowned whistleblower who released the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War, Daniel Ellsberg was a nuclear war planner with access to highly classified information on U.S. nuclear strategy. Filmed just one year before his death at the age of 92, Ellsberg delivers a compelling and urgent warning about the ongoing threat of nuclear weapons and the importance of global action toward disarmament.

As conflicts around the world continue to heighten nuclear tensions, An Ordinary Insanity offers a timely and thought-provoking call for renewed public awareness, arms control and the pursuit of a world free from nuclear weapons.

Program

• Introduction by Cr Peter McIlwain
• Artists' talk with Min Simankevicius and Steve Warburton
• Screening of An Ordinary Insanity: Daniel Ellsberg on Nuclear Threat (29 mins)

Join us for this important afternoon of art, history and conversation as we reflect on the past and consider the ongoing pursuit of peace.

Resources:
www.defconlevel.com

Take action:
www.icanw.org

Main image by Steve Warburton Shinichis Tricycle, ©The Artist