"Niitsu's practice explores the history of image reproduction, visual communication and new technologies."*
After making lithographs at the printing studio Atelier Idem in Paris and researching limestone layers in Germany in search of the origin of the material for stone lithographs, Niitsu experimented with limestone to create a smartphone printed with the iconic image of the atomic bomb.
#16071945 is the date of the first atomic bomb test in the history.
As part of the "Manhattan Project", the United States Army conducted the explosion at New Mexico, the bomb nicknamed "The Gadget" was exploded at 05:29:21, with an energy equivalent to around 20 kilotons of TNT. At this precise moment the atomic age began.
This nuclear development project was carried out in secret, and the explosion photo taken by Jack Aeby was also top secret. It was about two weeks before of The Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.
By using a material that signifies durability to produce an object that represents immediate communication, Niitsu questions technology's longevity, our conception of time, and the ability of powerful images to change societal thinking.
(*Text from exhibition "I Say Yesterday, You Hear Tomorrow. Visions from Japan" at Gallerie delle Prigioni, Treviso, Italy, 2018.)
Remerciements :
Noriko Mitsuhashi (Reseach trip for limestone)
