Nuclear New Mexico

Nuclear New Mexico: Artist Perspectives in Film & Photo

Wednesday, June 7, 6:30 pm | Free

Stop in for a unique program exploring the history and current impacts of nuclear activity in New Mexico through the mediums of film and photography. The program will start with a screening of Pedro Reyes’ 2023 film UNDER THE CLOUD in the Bassett Auditorium, followed by a discussion and close looking exercise of Patrick Nagatani & Andrée Tracey’s 1988 Polaroid photography diptych Trinitite Tempest currently on view in the exhibition Decades: The 1980s.

About the film:

UNDER THE CLOUD is a 25 minute digital film by artist Pedro Reyes. It was commissioned by SITE Santa Fe as part of the 2023 exhibition DIRECT ACTION on display at SITE Santa Fe February 3-May 8. The film investigates “the ongoing history of nuclear tests, uranium mining, and nuclear waste disposal on Indigenous lands in North America. Expanding on existing dialogues around the harmful effects of this nuclear legacy, Reyes gives special attention to elevating the voices of those who have witnessed and experienced the consequences of nuclear colonialism and who continue to resist it.” Special thanks is owed to the artist as well as SITE Santa Fe staff, particularly curator Brandee Caoba, exhibitions manager Max Holmes, and manager of external affairs Carolina Franco, for generously allowing the Roswell Museum to screen this work and for supporting an opportunity for dialogue with our local community about past and present impacts of nuclear activity. For more information, visit Site Santa Fe's website.

About Decades: The 1980s:

This is a continuation of the Roswell Museum’s exhibition series exploring artistic expression over ten-year spans of time throughout history. The photograph diptych Trinitite Tempest by Patrick Nagatani & Andrée Tracey is one of 43 artworks created during the 1980s from the Museum’s collection currently on display that help us to better understand where we are today by exploring elements of our past. One of many historical events in the 1980s that provides a stark example of parallels between then and now is the nuclear spill at Chernobyl in present-day Ukraine and the present peril of repeating history with Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, also in Ukraine, caught in the crossfire of an ever-intensifying armed conflict between Ukraine and Russia. For more information, visit the exhibition page.

Nuclear New Mexico