ATOMIC
1998 - 1999
'Atomic' confronted our fears and assumptions about science and the nuclear industry.
Featuring the work of American sculptor James Acord - the only private individual in the world licensed to own and handle radioactive materials - 'Atomic' deals with the tricky issue of the idealism behind the 'white heat of technology' of the fifties and sixties and attempts to break down the wall of secrecy which has shielded the nuclear industry since the cold war.
James Acord was artist in residence at Imperial College and the NOW Festival. His deadly serious ambition to build a 'nuclear Stonehenge' on a heavily contaminated site at Hanford - home of the Bomb - has led him through a tragi-comic dance with the US Department of Energy. Atomic leads us through his perilous 15-year journey to a site-specific display of his nuclear reliquaries - specially commissioned for his UK residency at Imperial College - and introduces the complementary work of two young British artists, Carey Young and Mark Waller.
As a counterpoint, Young travelled to the former USSR to photograph the remnants of the nuclear-fuelled space race, the hero-worship of Gagarin and the ironic spectacle of the pride of Russia's technological achievements displayed among knock-down Western consumer goods.
Meanwhile, Waller gained access to some of Britain's nuclear power stations to film a short thriller, 'Glow Boys', to be shown as an installation, about itinerant nuclear power workers who mysteriously develop superhuman qualities, featuring Mark E. Smith of The Fall.
2 - 27 October 1998
Imperial College Gallery, London, UK
The Atomic exhibition opened at Imperial College, London.
July - August 1999
Kluze Fortress, Bovec, Slovenia
The Atomic exhibition was shown at Kluze Fortress near Bovec. The fortress is at the head of the Soca Valley, near one of the main entry points to Slovenia from Italy and the exhibition has received a constant stream of visitors, mostly European tourists. James Acord gave his notable lecture-performance in the capital, Ljubljana.
2 Oct - 28 Nov 1999
Yard Gallery, NOW, Nottingham, UK
Atomic toured to the Yard Gallery at Wollaton Hall Museum in Nottingham as part of the NOW Festival, a festival of contemporary arts organised by the City Council. James Acord was artist-in-residence at the NOW Festival and was also be Visiting Artist at Imperial College during the autumn,
Catalogue available. Softback. Glows in the dark.
Essay by James Flint.
48 pages. 21 colour, 10 b&w illustrations.
