EXHIBITION DETAILS
A Thousand Beautiful Lies
October 30 - November 23, 2024
Reception: Friday, November 1st, 6 - 8 pm
Shayla Blatchford artist talk and presentation by Dr. Phillida A. Charley followed by a community conversation about the legacy of uranium mining on the Navajo Nation: Thursday, December 5th, 5:30 -7:00 pm on Zoom.
Free and open to the public.
Sign up Here.
A Thousand Beautiful Lies will feature artwork by acclaimed artists Shayla Blatchford, Abbey Hepner, Bootsy Holler, Kei Ito, Patrick Nagatani, and Will Wilson.
This exhibition investigates the nuclear environmental and humanitarian legacy by exploring the agency and place of those directly affected by lasting impacts. Each artist explores issues of atomic legacy through lived experience and personal biographies affected by atomic legacies.
A Thousand Beautiful Lies was curated by Hamidah Glasgow.
Previous Related Programming:
Richland Documentary Screening on February 1, 2024, at the Lyric Cinema and presented in partnership with the ACT Human Rights Film Festival. More Information here.
Bootsy Holler's artist talk on Zoom on February 7th at 5 pm MT. Free, More Information here.
More related programming is to be announced.
The National Endowment for the Arts and Fort Fund partially funds this exhibition and related programming.
The Anti-Uranium Mapping Project
The Church Rock Uranium Mill Spill of 1979
Navigating through the virtual landscape of Google Earth, trying to find my aunt's house on the Navajo Nation after 15 years away, I toggled through aerial views of highways from memory. What I discover wasn’t just the path home to my family, but a nearby scar marring the landscape—a coal mine, stark against the backdrop of my heritage. This jarring encounter was the catalyst for the Anti-Uranium Mapping Project, born out of a quest for connection and a shocking revelation. So began my journey to expose the hidden truths of extractive mining practices and to confront the devastating aftermath of uranium mining through photography interviews and an online interactive mapping project.
The Anti-Uranium Mapping Project’s first narrative series focuses on the largest release of radioactive waste in United States history, The Church Rock Uranium Mill Spill of 1979. Located on the Navajo Reservation, the United Nuclear Corporation operated the largest underground uranium mine in the U.S. in 1968, where waste was stored in unstable tailings ponds. In July 1979, one of the tailings dams breached, releasing 1,100 tons of radioactive waste and 94 million gallons of contaminated water into the Puerco River. Despite selective clean-up efforts, the legacy of contamination remains. This exhibition on Church Rock is a glimpse into what indigenous communities face when mining corporations without proper regulations encroach on native lands.
Transuranic is a series of uranotypes, an obsolete nineteenth-century photographic process that uses uranium instead of silver to form the image. The red and yellow hue of the uranotypes is likened to the color of the sky after the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Abbey Hepner's artistic practice examines health, technology, and our relationship with place.
Contaminated is a layered exploration of the tens of thousands affected by radiation illnesses and the secrets kept at the Hanford Nuclear site. Hanford produced plutonium for the first nuclear bombs used during WWII. In 1942, my grandfather arrived on the land as a surveyor and started working for the U.S. Government's Manhattan Project. Contaminated is what has happened to the people and the land in southeastern Washington State. This is where I was born. This is where my family lives.
An undertaking of this magnitude had never been attempted, and the records kept on employees' safety years later were deemed insufficient. The U.S. Department of Labor now has the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act, which began in October 2000. This Act now pays out employees and survivors of a family with specific illnesses related to working at the Hanford site.
My family, thousands of other employees, locals, and the land have all been affected. In the 1990s, after the Cold War, the Hanford reactors were decommissioned and left behind 53 million gallons of high-level, complicated nuclear and mixed dangerous waste. To this day, the Hanford Site contains two-thirds of the United States' radioactive waste - and is the most extensive environmental cleanup.
Contaminated is my experience growing up in this highly charged and secretive town and its impact on the people and land. Each unique piece is hand-built from family and friends' stories, pictures, and declassified documents.
Where the Mountains Glow
Where the Mountains Glow is a result of my Santa Fe Art Institute residency, where I researched and visited victims of uranium mining in the Navajo Nation; through my own irradiated lineage of forgotten victims of nuclear weapons, I was deeply connected with the many still suffering victims caused by unethical uranium mining throughout the Cold War.
I created this installation by researching the contaminated land and my experience with meeting with survivors. The installation includes objects made of uranium glass juxtaposed with historical photographs of the Navajo Nation’s uranium mining. One of the photographs depicts a Navajo miner holding a piece of uranium ore barehanded; the print was paired with uranium glass shaped like the Peacemaker, the iconic revolver used by the U.S. government during the American “Wild West” era.
The installation is accompanied by a 30” width 310” long scroll depicting every known uranium mine in the Navajo Nation, many of which are still contaminated today.
Nuclear Enchantment
Since my arrival in New Mexico, twenty three years ago, I have become increasingly aware of the various activities in the scientific, military, mining, medical, etc. industries here in my home state. The historical as well as the contemporary development of the nuclear industry as well as its impact on this state has been my prime emphasis of investigation. A concern of this work is to promote a dialogue with and about the contemporary/historical landscape of the state that contains the most extensive nuclear weapons research, management, training, and testing facilities and organizations in the United States.
My intentions are to raise public consciousness about the effects of New Mexico's nuclear industry which continues to grow despite the damage it has already caused and will continue to bring to the state. The series, Nuclear Enchantment, attempts to awaken the many New Mexicans who still believe nuclear power poses no threat and that defense spending promotes the economy. Culturally and geographically connected to Mexico, it is perceived by the elite powers as a place that can be abused and even reduced to rubble.
AIR/Survey explores visual narratives about uranium extraction, its impact on Native American populations disproportionately affected by radiation and other health issues, and alternative reimagining of environments through an Indigenous Futurism response.
The Connecting the Dots for a Just Transition project will raise awareness about a critical opportunity for a Just Transition on the Navajo Nation as it addresses remediation following uranium extraction that has poisoned the land and impoverished a people. These images are part of a photographic survey using drone-based aerial photography to help Diné people re-story our narrative. This project is ambitious and just beginning. I hope to present a portrait of environmental damage and the people affected by it. More importantly, I hope to shape a platform for voices of resilience, wisdom, and vision for a transition to restorative systems of economy and memory-making. This survey will lead to a series of exhibitions and an archive of documentation to help advocate for a reformed approach to environmental remediation underway on the Navajo Nation.