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Images from
Absence/Presence
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Abesnce/Presence
Artists Statement
During the incredible light and heat of the atomic blasts at Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, one of the many curious after effects was that the intense light
had permanently fixed the shadows of people and objects onto the area
around them. These people, unawares that they were in any immediate
danger, were forever immortalised going abouth their everyday tasks. This
strange aftereffect of these terrible events gave birth to the idea of
capturing gallery visitors' silhouettes on the walls for the course of the
exhibit.
On Thursday, August 7th, RuggThorp and Raindog inhabited walled city from
10 am - 10 pm, and using paint, a series of mushroom cloud cut outs and
the participation of interested viewers painted these body outlines onto
the walls of the gallery, accompanied by text.
Raindog had researched the subject of Hiroshima, the atomic bomb, atomic
power and the ensuing fallout. On the walls he painted factoids and quotes
pertaining to this subject matter. These words are painted in black, along
with a poem written by a friend. During the course of the 12 hours,
Raindog developed a new poem which appears throughout the room painted in
red. The poem emerged out of the things he had learned and the events of
the day, especially the interaction with viewers.
Meanwhile, RuggThorp interacted with the gallery visitors and proceeded to
wrap any willing participants in plastic wrap, preparing them for their
place on the wall. Once wrapped, the participant then selected his or her
own color from the limited choices available. Then RuggThorp chose just
the right spot to place them at the wall and began painting wildly.
One participant painted a few lines of her poem in her body shape. Another
participant felt that a question mark was necessary.Although this was
primarily a collaboration between RuggThorp and Raindog, final content of
the exhibit was partially determined by the requests and personal
statements of viewers.
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