DETAILED SCHEDULE The Pickle Company’s Visual and Performance Art Program and Artist-in-Residence Program present: EXPOSED: a large-scale mixed-media exhibition exploring the legacy of nuclear testing
“Even in the history of this admirable republic there are moments of horrible betrayal…” October 12 – November 17, 2007 Gallery hours daily by appointment: 801.450.8977 Featuring new work by Trent Thursby Alvey, Jan Andrews, Jean Arnold, Frederick Brayman, Jim Frazer, Suzanne Kanatsiz, Frank McEntire, Michael McGlothlen, Shawn Porter, Eric Ristau, Suzanne Simpson, and Maryann Webster as well as the images of Pickle Company Artist-in-Residence, Carole Gallagher, internationally acclaimed photographer and author of American Ground Zero: the Secret Nuclear War. “They are ordinary people to whom something extraordinary has happened, and Carole Gallagher reveals their pain, anger and confusion with the relentless clarity of art.” -T.H Watkins, the Washington Post ATTENDANT EVENTS: Friday, October 12, 2007, 7 -10 pm: Friday, October 19, 2007, 6 - 9 pm: Friday, October 26, 7:00 pm: SL-1 is a grisly meticulous examination of the details of a nuclear accident. The explosion took place in 1961, at the Atomic Energy Commission's SL-1 reactor in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Three workers were killed, and there was evidence that one of them, in the midst of marital problems, might have triggered the accident deliberately. “Truly, this was - as someone in the film describes it - 'a new way to die.' The film makers' style is one of grim understatement, and it is highly effective. Using documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act to reconstruct the story, and making especially chilling use of a Government-filmed re-enactment of the disaster, they create an enormously sobering record of the accident, its lessons and its legacy.” -Janet Maslin, the New York Times Bound by the Wind is a video documentary on the global human impact of nuclear weapons testing and the forty-year international campaign to achieve a comprehensive test ban. The documentary focuses on the plight of the world's downwinders, those who have been directly affected by radiation from nuclear testing throughout the planet and documents the transformation of several downwinders into leading activists in the global movement to stop nuclear testing. It also captures the thoughts and activism of distinguished scientists like Linus Pauling, two-time Nobel Laureate, and Glenn Seaborg, former Chair of the Atomic Energy Commission. “Bound by the Wind is much more than an excellent documentary on nuclear testing. It is a spirited manifesto delivered by citizens around the world who are standing their ground in the places they love, peacefully and forcefully, to bring an end to nuclear testing for all time." -Terry Tempest Williams, Salt Lake City naturalist, author of Refuge
Friday, November 2, 2007 6:30-8:30 pm: With a Utah Legislative Interim Committee considering legislation that would bring a nuclear reactor to Utah, our state has been thrust into a debate over nuclear power. Some advocate for energy diversity, while others feel nuclear power is necessary to address climate change. However, given Utah's history with uranium mining, milling, and fallout from nuclear weapons testing, and statewide efforts to defeat the PFS proposal and ban hotter types of nuclear waste, many Utahans aren't entirely comfortable with "the nuclear option." Join HEAL Utah for a panel discussion that will air these issues and concerns and pose the question: “Is it possible to fight global warming without choosing the nuclear option?” Panelists include:
Please see www.healutah.org for more information. Saturday, November 3, 2007 4:00 pm:
His writings and public lectures have dealt with the development of nuclear physics and its applications and the roles of scientists and community organizations in controversies on the health and environmental effects of fallout from nuclear weapons testing. He was oral history consultant to the President's Committee on Human Radiation Experiments. Dr. Weiner is presently completing a book on the history of social responsibility in science from the atomic bomb through contemporary genetic engineering. A new edition of his book, Robert Oppenheimer: Letters and Recollections (with Alice K. Smith) was published in 1995. He is the editor of three other books in the history of science. His courses at MIT have included Biotechnology and Society, Engineers, Scientists and Public Controversies, and American Science: Ethical Conflicts and Political Choices. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1996 Weiner became Professor Emeritus in the MIT Program in Science, Technology, and Society. He presented the Arthur Miller Lecture on Science and Ethics at MIT in 2002. In 2001 he was a Visiting Professor at the University of California-Berkeley and was appointed Regents Lecturer at UC Berkeley for the spring semester 2003. Dr. Weiner is currently Visiting Research Professor at New York University. Friday, November 9, 2007 7:00 pm:
In partnership with Brolly Arts, the Pickle Company presents Prayer to the Unexpected Flight, choreographed by Mary Johnston-Coursey, a site-specific dance that evokes the pain and fragmentation of today’s world. The final rendition of this short piece begins with a radio collage depicting the chaos of our world, the message, some sort of death must happen if new life is to emerge. Set to a score by Steve Reich; the driving music reflects the changing mood of America leading up to and entering into WW2. The dance examines the pursuit of power and its repercussions as some struggle to create structure and order while others move powerfully to deconstruct this order. The goal, to attain ultimate power. Eventually, everything falls apart. The effect is to move beyond cultural boundaries, and to call upon the regenerative forces of the earth to bring new order out of chaos, spiritual fullness out of spiritual poverty. Following the dance, Barbara Rose Johnston, anthropologist and Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Political Ecology in Santa Cruz, California will lecture on Half-Lives & Half-Truths: Confronting the Radioactive Legacies of the Cold War. Half-Lives and Half-Truths, edited by Johnston, presents a compelling analysis of years of official secrecy in both the United States and Russia. For most people, the specter of nuclear war evokes nightmares of giant mushroom clouds, blistering waves of heat, and massive casualties—followed by a sigh of relief that to date the world of nations has avoided such “mutually assured destruction.”
This concerted public relations campaign also generated biases that skewed generations of scientific research. “At the most fundamental of levels,” writes Johnston, “the struggle to address the radioactive legacy of the Cold War has been a struggle over who has the right and power to shape, access, and use information. People seek access to information that depicts ‘the whole truth’ about the nuclear war machine and its human health effects. And governments seek to control or remove from public access such information. They do so because this information demonstrates past harm and present or future risk, and thus demonstrates liability and supports demands for accountability.” Barbara Rose Johnston is the author of numerous books, articles and essays exploring the connections between human rights abuse and environmental crisis. Half-Lives & Half Truths is hot off the press and is available at bookstores or from the publisher, sarpress.sarweb.org. See Johnston’s CounterPunch essay at www.counterpunch.org/johnston04212007.html About the Artist About Brolly Arts The term "brolly" is British slang for umbrella, an appropriate name for an organization that has strived for inclusiveness since its inception. Through workshops, performances, installations, and commissions, Brolly Arts promotes the visual and performing arts, including dance, music, theater, literature, photography, and much more. Brolly Arts strives to provide professional development for artists, create collaborative opportunities for artists from a variety of disciplines, offer creative and educational experiences to the community, maintain overall excellence, and pay artists living wages. In meeting its goals, Brolly Arts contributes to the community's cultural vibrancy and artistic diversity. www.brollyarts.org Friday, November 16, 2007 6 – 9 pm: Friday, October 19 – November 24, 2007: “In a decaying society, art, if it is truthful, must also reflect decay. And unless it wants to break faith with its social function, art must show the world as changeable. And help to change it." Plan-B Theatre Company presents: the world premiere of
October 19-November 4, 2007 Tickets $18 at 355-ARTS or www.planbtheatre.org Click here for the full press release (PDF) Featuring Joyce Cohen, Teri Cowan, Teresa Sanderson, Kirt Bateman, Mark Fossen, and Jason Tatom. Directed by Jerry Rapier. The state of Utah was downwind of many of the 928 nuclear bombs the U.S. government exploded in the Nevada desert between 1951 and 1992. EXPOSED explores the human consequence of the nuclear history of our state and our nation. Thursday, October 18, 2007 8:00 pm: Friday, October 19, 2007 8:00 pm: Sunday, October 21, 2007 2:00 pm: Saturday, November 3, 2007 8:00 pm: Fallout: the Environmental Impact of Atomic Testing
Saturday, October 20, 2007, 2:30 -3:45 pm For more information call: 801.832.2805 Have we learned our lesson about the dangers of exploding nuclear weapons in the earth's atmosphere? The effects of radiation, from nuclear power, nuclear waste, nuclear testing? At the same time, we need to understand how well the government regulates its own activities and judges its own negligence. A look at our nuclear past, therefore, may be a glimpse of our future. Please join our panelists Carole Gallagher, author of American Ground Zero: The Secret Nuclear War and Mary Dickson, writer/activist/downwinder and playwright of EXPOSED in a presentation and discussion about “Fallout”. the SLC Film Center presents screenings of short films with international and local perspectives on nuclear testing
Sunday, October 21, 2007 Admission is free 12:00 pm: Epicentre Epicentre is a documentary about our nuclear past and present. It looks underneath the mushroom cloud at the subtle but pervasive effects of the bomb and how it has changed the way we think about everything from democracy to the environment. It's a cultural history or the nuclear weapons program constructed from interviews with observers of the nuclear weapons industry, weapons scientists, peace activists, psychologists, anthropologists, and cold war historians. The relevance of nuclear issues today couldn't be greater. Tensions in Canada and the US are running high with plans to rebuild the nuclear arsenal.
5:30 pm: Atomic Café A cult classic, this acclaimed documentary about the beginnings of the era of nuclear warfare is created from a range of archival films from the 1930s, 50s and early 60s, including newsreel clips, U.S. Government-produced propaganda films (including military training films), advertisements, and TV and radio programs. The film does not employ narration and the soundtrack utilizes atomic- themed songs form the Cold War era. Though an atomic holocaust is a grave matter, the film has ample black humor generated by the use of old training films, such as the classic, Duck and Cover. Sunday, November 4, 2007 11:00 – 1:30 pm Genbaku Shi: Killed by the Atomic Bomb, Winner of the 1994 Student Academy Award and the CINE Gold Eagle - The film follows DuWayne Williams, one of the first Americans to witness the sights and smells, and the people after the atomic destruction in Nagasaki as he journeys into his past to confront a memories that he has denied until now. The horrors of war are exposed through wrenching archival footage and become very personal as the old soldier and a bomb survivor bridge their enmity and share the commonality of anguish and desire that atomic weapons never again be used. Life Was Good, the Claudia Peterson story Life Was Good chronicles Claudia Peterson's transformation from Mormon housewife into political activist as she realizes that her family's health and happiness is threatened by her own government's atomic testing program. Hot Wind: Stories from Parowan Hot Wind relives the period on the weapons testing at the Nevada test sight from the perspective of four downwinders from Parowan, Utah. The patriotic Mormon community of Parowan has struggled to deal not only with the physical consequences of radiation exposure, but the psychological trauma of having been betrayed by the United States' government. HEAL Utah and the Wallace Stegner Center for Land Resources and the Environment present a panel discussion on Nuclear Power, Global Warming, and Utah's Energy Future
Friday, November 2, 2007 6:30 - 8:30 pm 741 S 400 W, SLC With a Utah Legislative Interim Committee considering legislation that would bring a nuclear reactor to Utah, our state has been thrust into a debate over nuclear power. Some advocate for energy diversity, while others feel nuclear power is necessary to address climate change. However, given Utah's history with uranium mining, milling, and fallout from nuclear weapons testing, and statewide efforts to defeat the PFS proposal and ban hotter types of nuclear waste, many Utahans aren't entirely comfortable with "the nuclear option." This panel discussion will air these issues and concerns and pose the question: “Is it possible to fight global warming without choosing the nuclear option?” Panelists include:
October 12-November 17, 2007 From October 12-November 17, 2007 Sam Weller’s Zion Bookstore and the King’s English Bookshop will have in-store displays of books focused on the ethics and impact of nuclear testing, many of which include local perspectives. More information and store hours at www.samwellers.com and www.kingsenglish.com.
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Dr. Charles Weiner joined the MIT faculty in 1974 as Professor of History of Science and Technology. Prior to that he was Director of the Center for History of Physics at the American Institute of Physics from its founding in 1964 until 1974. His research, writing and teaching focus on the political, social and ethical dimensions of contemporary science and the involvement of scientists in public controversies arising from their work.
Johnston disagrees, suggesting that over the past 60 years, nuclear weapons production itself has waged a different kind of war on the communities around the world that have hosted the nuclear war machine. Contributors contend that the Cold War was, in fact, intensely hot, “generating acute and lasting radiogenic assaults on the environment and human health.” During what many call the first nuclear age, “when uranium was exploited, refined, enriched, and used to end a world war and fight a cold war,” a growing security state compounded environmental and health damages. For decades, this culture of secrecy distorted and withheld information about the dangers of radioactivity from the communities that hosted various elements of the government’s nuclear activities—uranium mines, mills, and enrichment plants; weapons production facilities; military proving grounds; battlefields; and nuclear waste dumps. “Controlling information meant the government was able to convince the public of the relatively minimal threat posed by atmospheric tests,” Johnston writes.
