Nuclear Family, dissolves the past/present binary of the legacy of nuclear war within the landscape of New York City and elsewhere. It explores the U.S. governments’ environmental degradation and responsibility, how images reveal/conceal knowledge within online platforms, and in what ways one can move towards a future of care for ourselves and environments. There is a trauma of not being able to fully spatialize a memory in a place, time or space. The history of the Cold War in America is often dislocated to some place geographically and temporally divorced from the now. However, this history exists today throughout the country and accumulates unwitnessed throughout New York. My work spatializes these historical ecological traumas and explores the U.S. governments’ environmental degradation and responsibility, how images reveal/conceal knowledge, and in what ways one can move towards a future of care for ourselves and environments.
In my sculptural assemblages using photographs, vellum, glass, yellowcake powder, steel barrels and plexiglass, I reference nuclear waste materials. These assemblages create a visceral viewing experience through their form, materiality and color. They serve as a framing device for my photo montages of archival documents and original photographs of these sites.