Atomic art

ARtist James Stanford grew up in Las Vegas in the fifties and sixties and witnessed nuclear tests as a boy. In the Las Vegas area, 100 bonds were launched above the ground with balloons, usually exploded at a height of 1000 feet, and the sand turned into trinitte, invisible but permanent radiation. But radiation also left visual signs in the region, including geological cracking and corrosion in underground testing areas, as well as cuts in rift lines in Yuka apartments. The strength and destruction of nuclear tests and the pivotal point of repercussions in Stanford’s technical profession has become.

Most Americans who live in the Cold War significantly began to recognize the dangers of nuclear weapons constellation, preferring to focus on benefits – such as medicine and industry – that atomic energy can provide modern society. Soon the risk of drifting of radioactive waste became clear, causing widespread fear when entering the atmosphere, water, tribal and agricultural lands.

Stanford at the same time seems to be an abstract and sublime vision of the explosive sky, and the mediation of the natural world. His images are a fantasy expression of the human scientific and military power that is enacting on a landscape that is often seen as empty and unlimited, and it is a false and subordinate place. Stanford image Atomic glass It faces the material effects of the nuclear test on the desert scene. In his fateful beautiful image, Global atomic explosionStanford picks up the catastrophic moment of the nuclear explosion, where an impossible orange loop of black night patterns is frame. In his work Nuke photo tourWe see both moment in time and a window in a view of the universe. It uses Mandallas patterns as a way to summon the strong and powerful union for opposites, a call for reconciliation between humanity and the natural world, and the calm withdrawal of science and return to membership.

Adapted from the “Broken Earth and the sky”, written by Rosa Ji Birland, in Atomic childEdited by J. Boyer and G. Marmalade.

• Rosa JH Birland

  Spread on April 7, 2025

  Rosa Jh Berland is a historian and coordinated for art and modern and contemporary design. It has contributed to writing to books, academic groups, scientific journals reviewed by the peers, art magazines, museum publications and exhibition, including Atomic childEdited by J. Boyer and G. Marmalade.

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