Elin O’Hara Slavick (1965-) is an interdisciplinary artist who explores war, memory, feminism, and more through her works. Her After Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Fukushima (2013) series is a collection of cyanotype prints curated to expose the haunting aftermath of the atomic bombings.
Upon first glance at these prints, you notice how bold the blue is which contrasts nicely with the white. As the subjects go from artifacts taken from the Hiroshima Peace Memorial to more abstract, manipulated compositions, Slavick encourages her audience to dig deeper. On the surface these objects present themselves as is: remnants from the bombing. However, as you look through the collection you find photos like Fukushima Mushroom Lace and Hiroshima Infinity Cranes which carry a lot of symbolism.
The ‘mushroom cloud’ is commonly used to describe the bombing clouds, while mushrooms themselves also symbolize decay and rebirth. The cyanotype captures the mushroom spores which also creates the illusion of smoke and debris.
The paper cranes used in Hiroshima Infinity Cranes refer to the story of Sadako and the Thousand-Paper-Cranes. Sadako is a young girl who was a survivor of the Hiroshima bombings but was diagnosed with leukemia (also known as the A-bomb disease) years later. Her friend, Chizuko, visited her at the hospital and encouraged her to make paper cranes out of origami paper. She explained that the crane, a sacred bird in Japan, lives for a hundred years, and if a sick person folds 1,000 paper cranes, then that person would soon get well. After hearing the legend, Sadako decided to fold 1,000 cranes in hopes that she would get better. She passed away in 1955 with her family by her side. Her resilience and faith in the face of fatal illness inspired the world, and in 1958 the Children’s Peace Monument was erected to honor her and all those lost to the atomic bomb disease.
[These] are images of loss and survival, fragments and lives, architecture and skin, surfaces and invisible things, like radiation. Exposure is at the core of this photographic project: exposure to radiation, to the sun, to light, to history, and exposures made from radiation, the sun, light and historical artifacts from the Peace Memorial Museum’s collection. After Hiroshima engages ethical seeing, visually registers warfare, and addresses the irreconcilable paradox of making visible the most barbaric as witness, artist, and viewer.
— Elin O’Hara Slavic, on After Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Fukushima
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