High Exposure: Max Deutscher Extended Information Panel

Into the Void, 2025

Into the Void, to me, is a statement on the fierce change we face—a vision, and I mean vision—an eye, a black hole of blindness we are forced to see in the modern world. It is about looking beyond that blindness to what truly matters. We see Powerlines and windmills within the image stand as references to the crisis of power. Mixed views on this lead us into blindness, in a world of corporate greed where the truth is swallowed and hidden. This black hole surrounds our very being. Our native animals placed into this landscape, somewhere they truly don’t belong… forced into this obsession forced into a realm they don’t understand.

The top half of the work, the sky is a story in itself—Sky Country (Lakorra Dja) water falling, not in a natural way, but from a tap. The tap a way of enforcing the stress on our waterways and unnatural flow, flow guided by unnatural governance leading to this crises of a once beautiful untouched land. The kookaburra (Kuwarrk) forced into a portal a poison to their very existence—above, two magpies (Parrwang) appear. They reference our dreamtime of lifting the skies out of darkness to bring the light, yet here, they too are trapped, unable to complete their purpose. The darkness lingers. It is now up to us to listen to their vision the time is NOW.

Within the centre lies the blackhole—the eye. Everything in the image is drawn toward, devoured by us. People pulled toward the black hole, but we see no faces. just people walking into this portal are they escaping this crude world or simply just walking away we see this constantly with never one person staying in place, always running to something else, something new, an instinct of human nature to run from our own horrors. Would the world be a different place if we simply stayed, if we faced what we’ve created? This black hole feels very real to me. No one is perfect, I hope one day we will see its pull reversed.

Below we see (Dja) a landscape of complete confusion to our kangaroos (Goim-ngurgang), time and time again they end up surrounded with nowhere to go nowhere to escape. A fish lies out of water within this landscape again instating the stress on our waterways and corporate greed of detrimental effects that spills to our oceans—the one place humans were never made for yet have still managed to destroy. From a portal in the centre, hands reach out, pulling at the strings of powerlines, an attempt to alter the system, to change and protect our land. But the struggle continues, the balance always under threat.

Into the Future, 2025

As the smoke rose from the carefully tended flame of our people, it was not meant to kill but to cleanse our souls of what we have made of our planet today. Lal Lal, a final resting place for what made us, our creator Bunjil, in the falling waters—a profound spiritual energy passing through our veins as we visit his final nest.

This piece asks you to think: was Lal Lal a cry, a falling water to what we have made of our planet today? A glimpse into the future can be seen by our ancestors represented in this piece—a dark, concrete future, seemingly alive with the frantic pulse of modern life. Every available surface a statement, a claim, a fight for survival.

Sometimes, we must ask ourselves: Would these streets be brighter if we continued to cleanse them as our ancestors once did? Or is the modern age of expression a testament to our origin? This question looms over us every day, as it feels we never know, even with age, what is considered right and wrong. What must we do to preserve our being, to preserve our ancient past?

Change The., 2025

The message I’m trying to convey in this piece is not of happiness nor sadness, as you will see a stream of interwoven dates marking the most crucial changes to our Indigenous culture in the last 250 years. A strong remark to change.

A lone figure can be seen as a symbol that the road ahead for our 70,000-year-old culture’s reconciliation is going to be long. Beside him, a possum navigates these stairs. One animal our culture has thrived off and lived in coexistence with for millennia has since been pushed to the city, like us. The possum embodies the fierce demand for positive change. His future intrinsically linked with ours cries for change.

Casting a shadow on the piece is the level face of an Indigenous man. With his gaze, he has observed our culture and world suffer through some good yet some profoundly bad changes. With the looming high-voltage sign, it feels we are always on edge living in this world. We need change. Our culture needs change. Our possum demands change, or we may never see him climb back up those stairs.

Maximillian Deutscher Biography

Maximillian Deutscher is a proud Wadawurrung man and digital artist whose work captures life through an imagined lens, blending vibrant colour, cultural connection and contemporary vision. Growing up immersed in creativity, Maxi was shaped by his family of amazing artists—his Mum, Dr Deanne Gilson, a renowned painter; his father, Andrew Deutscher, an amazing graphic designer; and his grandmother, Marlene Gilson OAM, a profound role model and painter.

‘From my earliest days, weaving between the colours of Mum’s vibrant studio, creativity became part of my very being. Photography found me later yet claimed me quickly becoming the lens through which I reimagine and share my culture in a form both new and deeply rooted. Each image is a joy, a bridge between cultural tradition, my imagination and statement.’

Initially drawn to fine-line drawing, his creative path shifted in high school to photography, though his true passion emerged during a trip to Europe two years ago. After returning home, he enrolled in Oxygen College to study photography a week later, refining his skills while also embracing his father’s early lessons in Photoshop he received when he was 8 years old. Maxi says, ‘My process when creating these pieces never has an end goal, I feel like in the process the story revels itself to me and then I build upon that layer upon layer upon layer’.

Maximillian’s works merge photographic realism with surreal digital composition, exploring themes of identity, cultural resilience, environmental change, and the complexities of modern life. ‘Vibrancy in my work is everything. In a way, the colour portrays my every emotion at the time of creation, it controls the way something is seen. It leads you on a journey of unknown,’ he said.

Through his art, Maxi examines the tension between past and present, natural and urban, stillness and chaos, while honouring 70,000 years of rich culture.

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