SITUATION #84

The atom bomb ushered in a new era. Beyond its scope as a weapon, this efficient instrument of power has been employed as a threat or a pretext for war. The bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki left a lasting imprint on the collective consciousness. Despite this, there have been over 2,000 nuclear weapon tests since 1945, the sequence of events and victims of which are barely known. In Anecdotal, David Fathi examines the deadliest weapons known to humankind and researches widely unknown events from the Cold War era, ones which find no mention in familiar accounts. Reports of nuclear incidents, documentary records, edited archival photos and freely-associated imagery all form part of Fathi’s compendium. The anecdotes, recontextualised with new narratives and images, are strange but true: tales of contaminated ministers and the taste of irradiated drinks; of vaporised chickens and bombs accidentally dropped on children at play. In Fathi’s work, the absurdity manifest in these stories is as pressing as the question of their respective significance when considering the general history of nuclear weapons.

More by David Fathi: davidfathi.com

Kindly supported by Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne.