Atomic Testing in Australian Art Jd Mittmann

ATO MIC TEST ING IN AUST RAL IAN ART JD MIT TMA NN Around the world artists have be en conce rned wit h Within a radius of 800m the dest ruction is co mplete . and Walle r. He docume nted the Austr alian New Gui nea nuclear iss ues, from the first application of atomic bomb s Over 70,000 die instantl y. campaign and its afte rmath . at Hi roshima and Nagasaki, to at omic testing, uraniu m A person stan ds lost amongst the ruins of a house . In 1946 he was se nt to Japan whe re he witnes sed mining, nuc lear waste tra nspo rt and storage, and We don’t see the chi ld’s exp ression, but it can only be the effects of the ato mic bomb. He doc umented the va st scenarios of nuclear Armageddon. The Australian artisti c one of shock and suffering. A charred tree towers ov er dest ruction from a distant vi ewpoint, spa ring the viewe r response to Bri tish atomic te sting in the 195 0s is les s the rubble. Natu re has withe red in the on slaught of hea t the ho rri fic deta ils. His sketch Rebuilding Hiroshim a well-know n, as is the sto ry of the tests . and shock waves. Simply titled Hi roshima , Albe rt Tucker’ s shows civil ians clearing away the rubble. Li fe ha s Cloaked in se crec y, the British atomic testing progra m small wate rcolour is quiet and conte mplative. Pa inte d retu rned to the ci ty, in the new age: Li fe after the bom b. and its consequenc es remained out of p ublic sight unt il in 1947 in Hi roshima, the Melbou rne mode rnist painte r Albe rt Tucker arrived in Jap an with the Aust ralian Army the late 197 0s. A g ene ration la ter, it seems much of tha t presents a lone survivo r, a hibakusha in Japanese . as an art co rrespondent in 1947, a year af ter Lt Rowed . knowledge has been fo rgotten. A youn ger generati on of He travelled on suggestion and in the comp any of Australia ns have practi cally no idea atom bombs we re A YOUNG ER GEN ERATION OF AUST RALIA NS HA S American po et Ha rry Roskolen ko, who he met th roug h exploded in their count ry, wh y, and what the lo ng-te rm PR ACTICA LLY NO ID EA TH AT ATOM BOMBS WER E John Reed and the Ang ry Penguins at Heide, a 15-a cre legacies are. DEVE LOPED AND EX PLODED IN TH EIR CO UNTR Y. prope rty, in Melbou rne. John and Su nday Reed nu rtu red Black Mist Bu rnt Count ry is a su rvey exhibi tion curate d a ci rcle of like-m inded mode rnist artists, writers and to fo rm an ove rview of Austral ian artists’ creations an d In stark cont rast to Albe rt Tucker’s work, the pal e intellect uals, which in cluded John Pe rceval, Joy Hest er considera tions, with fo cus on the Brit ish atomic tes ts in monoch rome colou rwash paintin gs by Reg Rowed featu re and Sidney No lan, and of whi ch Tucker was a cen tra l Australia. Artworks have kindly been made available by a vast, devas tated and dese rted citysca pe: the skele ton fi gu re. Tucker and Rosk olenko fl ew in a mili tary DC-3 . private and public lender s, and by the artists themsel ves . st ructu re of the dome of the city’s Exh ibition Hall and th e Tucker had nev er been in a plane befo re. Among th e This essay ex plo res these wor ks, their creators and th eir blasted Aioi Bridge overs hadowed by a th unde rous sk y. various sto ps was Mo rotai in the Philippines, whic h relation to each othe r. The dome, or its remains, have be come an iconic imag e provided a sober ing experien ce and a preparati on fo r Hea rteningl y, mo re than 70 years after Hi roshima , for the insta nt wipe-out of Hiroshima. The ruin, as we wil l scenes to com e. On Okinawa beach Tucker walk ed int o the issues and conce rns arising from the nucle ar see late r, appears time and time again in other artworks , a literal min efield, a ha rrowing exp erience as he la ter Pandora’s Box featu re st rongly among con tempora ry has been kept. Now as the Hi roshima Peace Memoria l admitted. The scale of dest ruction he en counte red in artists; be cause as Japan ese photogra pher Hi rom i (Genbaku Do mu), it se rves as a wa rning and cons tan t Japan left a de ep imp ression on him. Tsuchida points out, “we can nev er pretend that wh at reminder to hum ankind of the te rror of one bom b. Most Austra lian male artists se rved in the arme d happened in Hiroshima has noth ing to do with us.” 1 Lieutenant Reginald Row ed came to Japan at the ag e fo rces, unless they we re rejected for health reason s Regi nald Ro wed of 30, as an of ficial artist for the Milita ry Histo ry Sec tio n like Drysdale was, but only few experienced activ e (Aus trali a, b.19 16, d. 1990) Dawn of a new age – art of the Austral ian modernists of the Austra lian War Memorial. He was a trained artis t se rvice. Affected by the events of WWII, either as act ive Hi roshi ma 1946 6 August 1945. A new aeon dawns on humanity: nuclea r and had studi ed painting and drawing at Mel bou rne pa rticipants or as witnesses, the Heide artists create d wate rcolour on pap er age. At 8.15am local time the Enola Gay , a Uni ted State s Technical Col lege from 1934 to 1938 under John Row ell a number of wor ks dec rying the tr agedy and lame ntin g 48 x 63 cm © Aust ralian War Mem orial B52 bombe r, drops ‘Little Bo y’, the first uranium bomb , and Napier Walle r. In 1940 he enlisted in the army, the human con dition. Arthur Boyd, John Pe rceval , AWM2 6374 onto the unsu specting Jap anese city of Hiroshima . but became a war artist on the urging of his siste r Albe rt Tucker and Joy Hester “we re all af flic ted by th e 36 37 ATOMIC TEST ING IN AUST RALIAN A RT JD MITTM ANN Sidn ey Nola n Albe rt Tucke r (Aus trali a; Engl and, b.1917 , (Aus trali a, b.19 14, d. 1999) d.19 92) Hi roshi ma 1947 Cent ral Des ert: At omic Tes t wate rcolour on pap er 1952 –57 26 x 35 cm oil and enam el on ha rdbo ard Aust ralian War Memo rial 121.7 x 91.1 cm © The Estate of Barb ara Coll ection Museum of Ol d Tucke r and New Art (MONA ), Hob art Cou rtesy of Sot heby’ s © The Sidney Nolan Trust / Aust ralia Brid geman Images 38 39 ATOMIC TEST ING IN AUST RALIAN A RT JD MITTM ANN times, the th reat and enc roachment of war”, wrot e “He makes us fe el the opp ressive fasci nation of thes e Patrick McC aughe y.2 “Out of th at they produced an art stark unpeo pled immensi ties of windwo rn rock an d that was new to Australian consciousne ss, which bot h bitter soil. And th rough them all runs the cent ral them e accepted and railed again st the tragic element in huma n of grinding heat.” Central Dese rt: Atomic Test is no existence .” Danila Vassilie ff, Noel Coun ihan, Stell ar exception. But unlike the rest of the pa intings in th e Dilger and Ja mes Cant we re other artists to foc us on series, in th is an ominous mush room cloud rises int o the human cost of (nuclear) war. a blue sky filled with toxic fall-out . The nuclear age, and British atomic testi ng in Austral ia The paintin g, a bold statem ent by an othe rwis e in the 1950s in particula r, we re ra rely add resse d political ly detached artist, ironically was not seen by di rectly in art. In pa rt, the reason might be found in th e the public un til 2001 when it appea red in an exhi bitio n sec recy su rrounding the at omic trials progr am and in Sidney Nola n: Landscapes and Legends at Goul d the general ly positive at titude towa rds the tests am ong Galleries in Melbou rne. 5 An imp ressed Geo ffrey Smit h the Austral ian public. The Australian media responde d commented: “Central Aus tralia reflec ts an image of indeed enth usiastical ly to news of the tests. Polls in the dis ruption, an in tense explos ion on the hori zon tha t mid-1950s showed broad major ity suppo rt hoping fo r reverberates throughout the compositio n.” The mush roo m Australia ’s ascent into the nuclear age and for a futu re cloud and mou ntain ranges appear to be lat er addition s as a ‘middle po wer’ .

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