. om / trinity

 

Listen to an extract (Mp3) of the sound work...

 

Statement from exhibition:
"This installation is a snapshot of a recent work in progress which combines two areas of interest which have lately come together for me - drawings and meditations based on the sacred syllable Aum (or Om), and the history and development of the atom bomb.

"Om is the most sacred syllable in Hinduism. It symbolises the concept of the Godhead found in Hinduism - the infinite Brahman - and the entire universe. I have been working on drawings inspired by Om for many years - and the ones presented in this show are just a few recent versions.

"My initial idea when invited to exhibit at Yesnaby was to produce some work which related to the threat of uranium mining at Yesnaby in the past – and this lead my research into history of the development of the atom bomb.

"I kept coming back to the (in)famous and unsual quote by J. Robert Oppenheimer (the American theoretical physicist who was the scientific research director of the Manhattan Project, the World War II effort to develop the first nuclear weapon) which he made after the first atom bomb test in July 1945 (the Trinity test), in which he provides a translation from the Bhagavad-Gita, the Hindu scripture:

'We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, "Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." I suppose we all thought that one way or another.'
- J. Robert Oppenheimer

"For this show, I have put together some recent drawings, some work using photographs of people involved in the Manhattan Project, and the first version of a sound work using Oppenheimer’s voice and audio collected from this building."

 

all artwork © rik hammond

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