Atomic Cowboy Exhibition- Beshoy

After viewing the exhibition for the second time and listening to the artists talk I learned a lot about the atomic bomb that I didn't even know beforehand. There were two specific pieces that stood out to me the most and one of the two is the Nuke Cuisine, 1992 by Nobuho Nagasawa. It's a Campbell's Soup but edited to say Campbell's Cloud of Mushroom Soup.The actual installation consists of 835 Cloud of Mushroom Soup cans. It was specifically 835 cans because the number of soup cans paralleled the number of American Nuke Tests from 1945 to 1992. I like how Nagassawa used something that was probably a common household item from that time and transformed it into a symbol of mass destruction. This almost pushes the viewer to confront how nuclear violence was normalized in American Culture. Learning their were ads of trying to get people to come and watch nuclear tests from afar as something fun to do just shows how it was like.

It stuck out to me because using something so simple and normal, carried out a heavy message. Seeing the soup cans lined up made me think of how easy it is to overlook the seriousness of something when its shown in an aesthetically pleasing way. Its when you read its description, and what the label/ingredients of what the soup can say is when it starts to get real.

Secondly, the other piece was, “Cowboys Dream”. This wall installation was made up of a grid of black and white headshots of Hollywood actors who starred in Western films shot in the American Desert during the peak of nuclear testing. Under each photo, Nagasawa lists the titles of movies they were in and the illnesses they ended up getting like lung cancer and more. It's crazy to learn that nearly everyone pictured in the piece had suffered diseases from radiation. Even more of the cast eventually gets sick overtime. Seeing this piece made me realize how far the nuclear age spread, even in areas that people dont usually think about. I was surprised to learn that many Western Films were made in places contaminated by radiation. It made me question how many stories like this have been forgotten and how often entertainment hides truth.

Both Nuke Cuisine and Cowboys Dream share powerful messages about power, gender, and social justice by showing light on the hidden human cost of Nuclear power. By using familiar images and thoughts like the movie stars and soup cans, she makes the viewers confront the truths even if it's uncomfortable about culture and the past. How the media and the government shaped our understanding of power. She made them comfortable to approach but when you learn about the truths it starts to be uncomfortable, which is ironic because that's kind of how the government and other huge powers mask themselves. “Clearly we cannot dismantle a system as long ass we engage in collective denial about its impact on our lives”(Understanding Patriarchy- BellHooks). Systems caused alot of real human suffering and for a long time most people ignored or denied it. This exhibition pushes the viewers to confront these truths about power and social justice.


https://archive.org/details/UnderstandingPatriarchy

https://nobuhonagasawa.com/1992/02/01/the-atomic-cowboy-the-daze-after