Inke Arns on Fri, 13 Nov 1998 01:03:14 +0100 |
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Syndicate: Carey Young: Atomi |
From: "Young, Carey SR" <Carey.Young@capgemini.co.uk> Subject: Atomic Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1998 23:14:12 -0000 Why not sculpt with radioactive material? ATOMIC New Works by James Acord, Carey Young and Mark Waller Imperial College Gallery and the Queen's Tower, Imperial College, Exhibition Road, London SW7 until 26th November 1998 tours the UK in 1999 --- 'Atomic' - a controversial new exhibition, confronts 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. Acord's deadly serious ambition to build a 'nuclear stonehenge' on a heavily contaminated site at Hanford - home of the Bomb - has led him into 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 - 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 Space Race. She portrays these technological crown jewels as they lie stranded in the present, like the scattering of an unruly time capsule. Removed from the familiar iconography of science fiction or Cold War paranoia, these little-seen giants of the Twentieth Century imagination appear small and vulnerable, like the shock of celebrity glimpsed in the flesh. Meanwhile, Waller gained access to some of Britain's nuclear power stations to film a short thriller, shown as an installation, about itinerant nuclear power workers who mysteriously develop superhuman qualities, featuring Mark E. Smith of the Fall. Post-shift in the early hours of the morning, the deranged jokes of the contractors lean over into belief as they talk of their superhuman prowess, metamorphosed by radiation. 'Atomic' is organised by the science-art agency The Arts Catalyst, who specialise in unusual collaborations between artists and scientists. Their next project will be with a dancer who works in zero gravity, courtesy of the French Space Agency. ------------ colour catalogue available, with an essay by James Flint, price ? 9.95 Press: for interviews and photos contact Anastasia Calder: tel +44 171 375 3690 fax +44 171 377 0298 email: supanova@artscat.demon.co.uk More information on the show and on The Arts Catalyst http://www.artscat.demon.co.uk/prog.htm Carey Young FutureWorks tel: (internal) 771 8133 (external) 0171 434 8133 Cap Gemini (UK) PLC carey.young@capgemini.co.uk http://www.capgemini.co.uk