“The bomb first was our weapon.  Then it became our diplomacy.  Next it became our economy.  Now it has become our culture.  We’ve become people of the bomb.”

E.L. Doctorow in Nuclear Rites: A Weapons Laboratory at the End of the Cold War by Hugh Gusterson

            Journalists consider the bombing of Hiroshima the most newsworthy event of the twentieth century.  Ironically, after winning World War II America began an undeclared war on its own citizens and relentlessly tested bombs in Nevada spreading fallout over its own people.

             I work as an archeologist in this series, excavating quotes and images from the twentieth century to exemplify what a bizarre culture we have become.  Imagery and text are placed in other systems such as science, language, and music notation to create associations between seemingly disparate systems to explore how meaning is construed.   The concept of the work determines the media which includes ceramics, photographs, digital imagery, and mixed media installations.

             I began the nuclear issues series in 1995 to commemorate fifty years of the nuclear age.

Judy Hiramoto