Artist Erin Siddall and art historian and curator John O’Brian both have a fascination with the atomic: Siddall’s Proving Ground, Nevada, Vancouver, installed at the Broadway–City Hall Canada Line Station, explores global histories of nuclear power through the once-coveted (and radioactive) household item uranium glass. O’Brian’s BOMBHEAD exhibition, on view at Vancouver Art Gallery, looks at the impact of the nuclear age as represented by artists and their art, and includes Siddall’s film work Fukushima Half Life.
How have artists approached the atomic in their work? How do the intertwining histories of nuclear power and photography affect artistic production? As new threat of nuclear action looms today, what responsibilities does art have to address this topic? Together Siddall and O’Brian trace the influence of the nuclear on artistic expression in the atomic age and of art on nuclear activity.
Presented in partnership with Burrard Arts Foundation and Vancouver Art Gallery.
Bruce Conner, Bombhead, 1989/2002, pigment on RC photo paper, acrylic