U.K. FREDERICK
ROADS END
The car has been with us for little more than a century but in that time its vast tentacles have wrapped firmly and tightly around the globe. Automobility is so much a part of our lives that we sometimes we forget that it’s there. Until things go wrong. It is in those moments, when motion is stalled and the engine is dead that the ambiguity of our car culture comes into sharp focus. It liberates us and ties us down.
Having spent the last five years studying car culture I am conscious that the car is a source of freedom, fun and celebration. But it can also be devastating, and it is this vision of automobility’s impact that endures in my mind. In an endless cycle of pleasure, breakdown, repair and renewal, the car and our lives keep going, hopelessly entwined together. This series is a small glimpse into the many places, people and things that make up the stories of roads’ end.
BIO
Ursula (U.K.) was born in Perth, Western Australia and grew up in Seattle, USA. She is currently based in Canberra.Ursula’s art practice includes photography, printmaking and video. Because she has an enduring interest in the way people make their environment and the way the world makes us, she is strongly inspired by working with objects, images and materials that already exist. Ursula holds degrees in Fine Art and Archaeology and recently completed her PhD in Art Theory, Photography and Media Arts at the Australian National University. She has exhibited her photographs in Australia and internationally and is the recipient of several grants and awards, most recently an ANU Vice-Chancellors Creative Arts Fellowship. More of her work can be seen at ukfrederick.com