1945 : 34°23′N 132°27′E

 

Acrylic on canvas, charred stretcher bars; whipping twine 200h. x 160w. x 160d. cm

 

A companion piece to 1923:32°43′N 70°07′E / 2023:31°31′N 34°27′E, derived from another historical event. The dropping of a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima in 1945 was also preceded by a leaflet drop. These were called Le May leaflets and warned residents that a terrible new weapon was about to be used and that residents should put pressure on their leaders to end the war. The leaflets had a strong tone of ‘you have been warned’, but the Americans were fairly honest about their true purpose, describing the strategy as psychological operations (psy-ops) intended to instil terror into the civilian population. The work is made by superimposing the text from a Le May leaflet over a USAF photograph of Hiroshima. I used a combination of image transfer and acrylic paint to mark the surface before cutting and re-stitching it. The resulting surface is suspended from a lattice of splintered stretched bars, blackened with fire in reference both to the traditional Japanese wood preservation technique of Yakisugi, and the destruction of a predominantly timber city.