Containment

Containment Drawings

Gallery 801 | photos by Jaffa Aharonov

Radioactive // Fallout Shelter 2018 12’ 9” x 5’ Charcoal, pastel, colored pencil, and ink on paper

The United States currently has 7,000 nuclear weapons. At the height of the Cold War, the arsenal was over double that. Worldwide, there are currently more that 14,000 nuclear weapons spread throughout 9 countries. According to numerous sources, the detonation of a mere 100 weapons would send the planet into a decade-long nuclear winter, causing millions of casualties from famine on top of the millions who would die from the blasts or from radioactive poisoning.

Waste Isolation Pilot Plant: “This place is not a place of honor. No highly esteemed deed is commemorated here. Nothing valued is here.” (2029 C.E.) 2018 5’ x 7’ Charcoal, gouache, and pastel on paper

Waste Isolation Pilot Plant: “This place is not a place of honor. No highly esteemed deed is commemorated here. Nothing valued is here.” (12018 C.E.) 2018 5’ x 7’ Charcoal, gouache, and pastel on paper

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is the only underground repository for the disposal of radioactive waste in the US. More specifically, the plant only accepts waste that was generated by the federal government during weapons production. This waste generally consists of contaminated tools, clothing and protective gear, soil, etc. In order to protect the environment and any life around it from contamination, this waste must not be disturbed for at least 10,000 years. To solve this long-term problem, the US government brought together a group of anthropologists, linguists, cosmologists, philosophers, geologists, architects, futurists, astrophysicists, and others to determine how to label this place when filled and sealed in 2030 C.E. A few of their many considerations included how current languages may evolve as well as the possibility that other intelligent beings could have the technology to dig deep enough to disturb it. These 2 drawings are the beginning of exploration into this 10,000-year future vision.

Fat Man / Little Boy 2017 5’ x 7’ Charcoal and ink on paper

Fat Man and Little Boy are the names given to the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, by the US. Before the atomic bombs were dropped, many other Japanese cities were carpet bombed into rubble by conventional bombs.
What is our legacy as the only country to have dropped atomic bombs?
What does it mean that we used these Japanese cities as tests for the effects of atomic bombs?

Drawing from The World is Falling Apart, and So Are We… 2012 10’ x 10’ Charcoal on paper

This is the resulting 10 by 10 foot charcoal drawing from The World is Falling Apart and So Are We…, a multimedia performance with 4-channel video installation that was presented at Intermedia Arts’ Queertopia, 2012. This piece draws together ideas of nuclear war, cancer, and world and personal heartbreak. Over four thirty-minute performances, I drew a bird’s eye view charcoal drawing of a nuclear bomb in the process of explosion. The image of the bomb progressed from the initial impact’s outward explosion through the inward and upward sucking of the characteristic mushroom cloud. As I drew, I became covered in the charcoal, referencing how the char coats and the radiation penetrates the body in the blast. The drawn image is one of strange, disturbing beauty; an aesthetic that appeals and repulses.