Why Nuclear Art Matters
In order for Nuclear Princeton’s information-spreading mission to be comprehensive, it must become comprehensible as something other than information. Art is the best way to synthesize the complexities of the nuclear issue into one picture, or one story, that people can connect to as they cannot to statistics. The works of photographer Patrick Nagatani and novelist Leslie Marmon Silko materialize the consequences of American nuclear development in the Southwest on indigenous communities into comprehensible wholes. From these works we can draw connections between cultural ideas and events that, though always there, have been covered over by the sands of historical neglect. One of our missions is to uncover them by presenting the works of the two artists mentioned above.
Leslie Silko is often considered the best novelist coming out of the so-called "Native American Renaissance," the movement of American Indian artists that became popular during the 1970's. In Silko's novels, the characters are Indians, trapped between the twin traumas of their history and present, that nonetheless push on…
Patrick Nagatani was a Japanese American photographer that focused on transcultural perceptions of American nuclear development and its consequences in his series Nuclear Enchantment. His goal is to facilitate the interaction of people from diverse regions and backgrounds with images depicting nuclear landscapes (whether they be…