Dear Leader

Dear Leader is a multimedia exhibition that casts a light on the existential weight of nuclear proliferation and the harrowing threat of nuclear violence. These fears generate a deep undercurrent of uncertainty that rests underneath our daily lives. The participating artists seek to provide personal reflections on the past and ask us to consider, if just for the moment, the present and future concerns of nuclear proliferation against our current geopolitical landscape. 

Eight artists – Linda Alterwitz, Takashi Arai, Cornelia Hesse-Honegger, Kei Ito, Michael Light, Noah Scalin, Paul Shambroom, Elin O’Hara Slavick – blurring the line between art and activism, survey the magnitude of this subject from different vantages. Michael Light draws his work directly from photographic archives of nuclear bomb tests from 1945 and 1962. Elin O’Hara-Slavick affixes shadows and time through photograms and rubbings of places and objects that survived the aftermath of Hiroshima. Takashi Arai’s video 49 Pumpkins highlights the pumpkin bombs, used in target testing throughout Japan during, suggesting all the possible ‘ground zeros’ of World War II had Japan not surrendered. Cornelia Hesse-Honegger‘s scientific drawings delicately detail the effects of nuclear fallout on a number of insect species living in radioactive locations such as Chernobyl. Noah Scalin renders permanent shadows of nuclear physicists, lighting matches to create images captured in carbon. Kei Ito, a third generation Hiroshima survivor, explores the connection of his family history and long-term effects of nuclear radiation. Linda Alterwitz builds layered portraits from medical imaging machines creating an intersection between science and the human psyche. Between 1992 and 2001, Paul Shambroom made photographs of nuclear weapon facilities throughout the United States, a document of the American military-industrial complex, which grows even more problematic as it ages.  

Simmering concerns of nuclear catastrophe for future generations fuel the work and support for this exhibition. Our hope is that Dear Leader, contributes to the ongoing international dialogue about the risks of nuclear confrontation, the deterioration of arsenals globally, the volatility of nation states and, ultimately, the consequences of reckless leadership.

Support for Dear Leader,  has been generously provided by Michael Schewel.