Nuke‑Cuisine
This work consists of hundreds of aluminium soup cans labelled "Cloud of Mushroom Soup" (a pun on "mushroom cloud") — originally 835 cans (each representing an announced U.S. nuclear test from 1945-1992) when first shown in 1992. In the current exhibition iteration, the gallery displays a reduced number (120 cans) alongside wall-installation components: a data wall on atomic bombs, portraits of actors who were exposed to radiation, and related documentation. The cans are stacked in a large pyramid / massif display (in one version) or arranged en masse, giving visual weight and scale. The “Cloud of Mushroom Soup” pun draws an ironic connection between consumer culture (soup cans) and the destructive power of nuclear tests. This piece uses a deceptively banal object (soup cans) to represent something deadly and huge (nuclear tests). The "mushroom soup" label transforms the pop-culture commodity into a symbol of mass destruction and complicity: you could "buy" it, you could "consume" it, but the consequences are violent. By stacking the cans, Nagasawa visualises the sheer number of tests and the magnitude of the atomic program. The connection to consumerism (“Campbell' s-style" soup can imagery) underscores how nuclear weaponry, environment, and culture intertwine: it suggests that destructive technologies become packaged, normalized, even invisible in everyday life. this piece situates itself in the lineage of conceptual and installation art that critiques power structures, reminiscent of pop art (soup cans), but turned into socio-political commentary about nuclear culture, environment, and global responsibility.The work critiques the immense power of states (U.S. nuclear tests) and how that power is symbolically hidden behind consumer imagery.
Cowboy’s Dream
This work is a grid of black & white headshots of film actors (notably from Hollywood western/cowboy films made in the U.S. desert near nuclear test sites). Beneath each photograph, Nagasawa lists the movies the actor made and the illness (cancer, brain tumour etc) they developed. One key example: the film The Conqueror (1956) starring John Wayne was filmed downwind of the U.S. nuclear testing site; many cast/crew (including Native American extras) later died of cancer. It is displayed as a wall installation: a sober, almost archival presentation of faces + data, turning Hollywood iconography into a ledger of consequence and loss. The cowboy is an American identity icon, linked to power, heroism, dominion over land. Nagasawa deconstructs this by showing that the land itself was contaminated by nuclear tests, and those heroes (and extras) were harmed by unseen forces. "The Atomic Cowboy: The Daze After addresses an array of Nagasawa’s ecological concerns by juxtaposing images of human frailty with the glitz and machismo of Hollywood’s “cowboy” genre" (SBU News). This piece sharply critiques the cultural mythology of the Western (cowboy) genre — the rugged hero, masculinity, conquest of frontier — by contrasting it with the vulnerability and mortality of those involved in its making. The inclusion of Native American extras in The Conqueror underscores colonialism, use of Indigenous labour, exposure to toxic fallout, and invisibility of these harms in mainstream culture. The cowboy myth often erases Indigenous presence; here that erasure is reversed, showing Indigenous people as victims.
Sources
"Nobi Nagasawa Joins Japanese Artists to Commemorate 80th Anniversary of Atomic Bombings October 20, 2025"
New NJCU Galleries Exhibition to Spotlight Consequences of Nuclear Weapons
Nobuho Nagasawa: "The Atomic Cowboy"
No comments:
Post a Comment