As water shortages are making headlines in the Southwest, two artists are collaborating to explore connections among water scarcity, climate change, and nuclear colonization. Chip Thomas and Ken Ogawa created two outdoor visual art and sound installations along Highway 89 just north of Flagstaff, Arizona, hoping to raise awareness about ecological devastation and injustice in the Colorado Plateau.

“Uranium mining has impacted generations of Indigenous people in this area,” said Thomas. “We hope people traveling the highway will stop to see the work, so they’ll learn more about water issues and that legacy.”

Ogawa and Thomas spoke with Hyperallergic in mid-October, before a site visit to experience the work firsthand. Both installations feature photographs of people harmed by uranium mining, which Thomas has transformed into large-scale wheat paste panels, along with audio loops created by Ogawa to amplify related themes. This collaboration marks the first time Thomas’s work has incorporated an audio component.

“Uranium” (2022) is located behind a building that once served as the Wauneta Trading Post, inside an old roofless ice house Thomas painted black and embellished both inside and out with numerous yellowcake-colored symbols for nuclear fusion that “speak to uranium contamination issues on the Navajo Nation.” Inside, he covered one wall with the image of a uranium miner named Kee John, who died of a uranium-related cancer. In one corner, he’s posted information about nuclear contamination, plus a US map showing uranium ore production by state that reveals its prevalence in this particular region.

Η συνέχεια εδώ.