Opens Thu 13 November (private view 6 – 8.30pm, open to press from 4pm)

Runs: 14 - 16, 20 - 23, 27 - 30 November 2008, 12 – 6.30pm

Admission free

Nicholls and Clarke Building, 3-10 Shoreditch High Street, Spitalfields, London E1

Nuclear power is re-emerging as a concern for our times, both as a generator of energy and as part of a defence strategy. Today it seems to stand for the failed utopian promises of modernism and a fresh hope for a carbon-free future. The contradictions that lie at its core have provided a rich source of questioning for artists, scientists, ecologists and activists for many years. The exhibition NUCLEAR: Art & Radioactivity explores these intricacies through two new commissioned works by Chris Oakley and Simon Hollington & Kypros Kyprianou. 

Last year, high court judge Jeremy Sullivan caused an apparent setback to the government's nuclear energy ambitions by ruling that public consultation into the creation of a new fleet of nuclear power stations was "misleading", "seriously flawed" and "procedurally unfair". The content presented to the public was so without substance that the judge ruled it would be "wholly insufficient for them to make an intelligent response". Soon after these events, Simon Hollington & Kypros Kyprianou started a residency at The British Atomic Nuclear Group as part of a public perceptions program initiated in response to the 2007 ruling. Hollington & Kyprianou’s work in NUCLEAR: Art & Radioactivity is the outcome from this residency, particularly their work within B.A.N.G’s wide-ranging public consultation process into the possibility of siting a nuclear power facility in the heart of London. Their new installation, 'The Nightwatchman’ takes the changing perceptions of the nuclear power industry over its 50 year history into a single immersive narrative environment. Combining the concerns of two different eras (that of the mid-80’s and that of the present day), ‘The Nightwatchman’ blends fact and fiction into a darkly humorous journey from hard-nosed PR to a logical hysteria.

Chris Oakley's new film 'Half-life' looks at the histories of Harwell, birthplace of the UK nuclear industry, and the new development of fusion energy technology at the Culham facility in Oxfordshire. Oakley has gained the cooperation of both these organisations in his research and filming. The film examines nuclear science research through a historical and cultural filter. It includes live action material alongside archive sources and animated sections drawn from scientific diagrams.  With the recent widespread acceptance of the reality of climate change driven by carbon dioxide emissions, the work explores the realities and myths surrounding the nuclear sciences.

Two discussion events accompany the exhibition:
Nuclear Talkaoke with The People Speak - Friday 14 November
Nuclear Forum at the RSA - Friday 28 November

Websites

http://www.artscatalyst.org/projects/darkplaces/nuclear.html