Output details

Atomgrad (Nature Abhors a Vacuum),

8 Photographic works, c-type prints, diasec mounted on aluminium, 180cm x 270cm

Brief Description

Eight c-type 180cm x270cm prints from a 10x8 negative. The photographs were taken in the abandoned town of Pripyat, situated within the 30km wide Exclusion Zone around the site of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The works take their title from the term used by locals to refer to the former ‘Atomic City’ founded in 1970 to house workers from the nearby Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, and deserted sixteen years later. A new series of photographic works from this ongoing investigation were premiered at John Hansard Gallery, 2011.

Research Rationale

We have been developing a new body of work in response to the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. The greatest ecological catastrophe humankind has ever seen, Chernobyl has been the subject of increased reflection in the light of the recent explosion at the Fukishima nuclear plant. Atomgrad, explores the thematics of dark tourism and continues our interest in states of consciousness and phenomenological associations with specific locations. The works depict deserted interiors of abandoned buildings within the exclusion zone. The images include a classroom, swimming pool and a nursery, all of which explicitly reveal a sense of rushed abandonment. In these images, history has been preserved as if in a vacuum, yet time has clearly passed.

Methodologies used

Using the recurring motif of a yardstick placed within each of the interiors, our act of entering and photographing these spaces, of interrupting this place beyond human control, provides a challenge to the viewer to consider the nature of artistic construction itself. The photographs encourage us to stare back into the past, into empty manmade spaces. How we relate to these places as we animate the works with our own presence is brought into sharp focus by this act of interference.