Nuclear Fallout: The Bomb in Three Archives

Opens at Antioch College’s Herndon Gallery

with Opening Events Sept 20-21, 2018

A FOTOFOCUS 2018 Biennial exhibition on view through December 7th.

 

Yellow Springs, OH (September 4, 2018) – Opening September 20th, 7:00-9:00 PM in the Herndon Gallery at Antioch College, Nuclear Fallout: The Bomb in Three Archives features the powerful conceptual works of two renowned Japanese-American interdisciplinary artists, Kei Ito and Migiwa Orimo, who co-anchor the exhibition. Additionally, a collaborative archival research project by six Antioch College students and their professor, Charles Fairbanks will be on exhibit. The exhibition draws on and responds to three vastly different historic archives that deal with the atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, in order to refresh our collective memory about the effects and aftermath of nuclear war. Nuclear Fallout will be on exhibit at The Herndon Gallery at Antioch College, South Hall, One Morgan Place, Yellow Springs, Ohio from September 20 through December 7, 2018. For more information, contact Jennifer Wenker at jwenker@antiochcollege.edu and visit the Herndon Gallery online.

 

The exhibition is a participating venue of the FotoFocus 2018 Biennial: Open Archive.

In response to the biennial theme: Open Archive, the artist-collaborators re-examine archival photographs, 16mm films, historical slides, documents, objects, and first-hand accounts of victims and survivors from three ideologically distant archives: the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Memorial Collection of the Peace Resource Center at Wilmington College, and declassified documents from the U.S. National Archives. The third archive to inspire Nuclear Fallout is the National Museum of the United States Air Force, which features the B-29 bomber that dropped the Fat Man atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan.

 

“In this project, we are critically considering the way war is curated and remembered in our our national museums, our archives, and in our cultural telling,” explains Jennifer Wenker, curator and creative director of the Herndon Gallery at Antioch College. “It is critical to be constantly asking ‘who created the narrative’ and ‘whose stories are missing.’”

 

Nuclear Fallout is organized by Jennifer Wenker, curator and creative director of the Herndon Gallery at Antioch College; Tanya Maus (Ph.D., Japanese History), director of the Peace Resource Center at Wilmington College; Migiwa Orimo, four-time recipient of the Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award; Kei Ito, nationally-awarded emerging contemporary photographer and multimedia artist; and Charles Fairbanks, Guggenheim fellow, documentary filmmaker, and former Assistant Professor of Media Art at Antioch College; and the students critically-engaged in collaboration with the named academic mentors.

 

Support for this FotoFocus Biennial 2018 exhibition was provided by FotoFocus, The Janet Wheeler Fund for the Arts at Antioch College, and by the Lloyd Family Fund for Peace Studies and World Law.

FotoFocus Biennial 2018 spans over 80 museums, galleries, and universities across Greater Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, Columbus, Dayton, and Yellow Springs, Ohio; and features over 250 artists, curators, and educators. Each Biennial is structured around a unifying theme; for 2018 that theme is Open Archive.

 

Learn more about the exhibition and the FotoFocus Biennial here.

Events Associated With Nuclear Fallout

 

Opening Reception & Gallery Talks in the Herndon Gallery

September 20, 2018, 7:00 – 9:00 PM

 

Performance of NAGASAKI – Wilderness Mute

Keiko Fujiie, Composer (Kyoto, Japan) with Orland Verdú, Dancer (Barcelona, Spain)

Choreographed by Abel Coelho ’04

Foundry Theater, Antioch College

September 21, 2018, 7:30 PM

 

FotoFocus Dayton Participating Venues Bus Tour: Tour with Curator

October 18, 2018, 10:00 – 10:30 AM

 

When We Say “Pearl Harbor”

Closing Event in the Herndon Gallery

December 7th, 2018, 7:00 – 8:30 PM

 

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About The Herndon Gallery

The Herndon Gallery is the center of contemporary visual arts programing at Antioch College. By creating and hosting dynamic exhibitions that awaken curiosity and visual engagement with our world, The Herndon Gallery is a both a regional arts destination and an integral curricular asset at Antioch College, with exhibitions and arts programming that are highly-collaborative, interdisciplinary, and fully engaged with important contemporary global issues. Visit the gallery online at antiochcollege.edu/herndon and follow “Herndon Gallery at Antioch College” on Facebook.

 

About Antioch College

Antioch College is a groundbreaking and progressive institution and community, dedicated to winning victories for humanity. Antioch students apply their classroom learning in the world at-large, through extended Co-op work placements with national and international organizations. Antioch teaches and lives its commitments to educational innovation, an engaged campus community, and the pursuit of social justice in all its forms. Antioch College is located in Yellow Springs, OH, in the heart of the Miami Valley. Learn more at antiochcollege.edu and on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.