This floor-mounted sculpture was conceived as an shrine/reliquary entombing the memory of the first atomic bomb, developed by J. Robert Oppenheimer.
The mixed media sculpture is comprised of a framing hemisphere to which Oppenheimer’s “tomb” is mounted. Inspired by the “vesica piscis” – overlapping disks of the same radius that frame the image of Christ in early Christian iconography – Oppenheimer, here, is the creator, eternally tied to the moment of detonation of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima. His image is bound in a guaze bandage that trails off into a cluster of pocket watches, all set to the time of ignition. He is bound to his invention. He is also a genie.
The “bomb” itself is a 3-D spherical mirror to which images of “flowers” are attached. These flowers are actually paintings of ‘Rapatronic’ photographs of atomic explosions that depict the first milliseconds of various detonations. A mock crown, derived from the famous “Milk Drop Coronet Splash” photo by Harold Edgerton – who also developed a custom shutter for atomic bomb photography – sits atop the sculpture.
The whole piece is mounted on a sculpted concrete base, with and fused and oxidized coins as protruding fingers.
