Abstract
This paper explores the intersection of personal responsibility, futility, and faith in visual representations of nuclear apocalypse. In two films produced during the late Cold War, Testament (1983) and When the Wind Blows (1986), the protagonists attempt to follow public guidance, maintain daily routines as their health and communities break down, and make muddled connections to religious faith. In Testament, a mother is left to care for her children in suburban California for months after an unexplained nuclear attack isolates and contaminates the town. In When the Wind Blows, a retired couple living in the British countryside diligently follow government instructions to “protect and survive”, while quickly succumbing to radiation poisoning. In a contrasting post-Cold War visual representation, the speculative artwork of the artists Erich Berger and Mari Keto imagine the storage of nuclear waste as a personal responsibility. In OpenCare (2016), waste is encased in steel pellets mounted on a bronze disc, and a series of artifacts and instructions assist in determining continued toxicity. While Testament and When the Wind Blows project the futility of personal responsibility and faith in nuclear survival, Berger and Keto’s system envisions a deep nuclear future requiring continued personal management and care.
Highlights
By imagining the experience of nuclear disaster, filmmakers and artists visualize the ways that people find structure and meaning in the face of an annihilating event
In two films produced during the late Cold War, Testament (1983) and When the Wind Blows (1986), the protagonists attempt to follow public guidance, maintain daily routines as their health and communities break down, and make muddled connections to religious faith
In Testament, based on the short story “The Last Testament” by Carol Amen and directed by Lynne Littman, a mother is left to care for her children in suburban California for months after an unexplained nuclear attack isolates and contaminates the town
Summary
By imagining the experience of nuclear disaster, filmmakers and artists visualize the ways that people find structure and meaning in the face of an annihilating event. In a contrasting post-Cold War visual representation, the speculative artwork of the artists Erich Berger and Mari Keto imagines the storage of nuclear waste as a shared personal responsibility. In their proposed system in Open Care (2016), displayed reverently as a shrine, waste is encased in steel pellets mounted on a bronze disc, and a series of artifacts and instructions assist in determining continued toxicity. By depicting efforts to maintain a family unit, build a shelter to government specifications, and manage radioactive waste, they demonstrate the intersections of personal responsibility, futility, and religious faith in visual representations of nuclear apocalypse. As Open Care imaginatively suggests, the global problem of managing nuclear capabilities remains urgent decades after the Cold War and can only be countered through pre-emptive and sustained shared responsibility
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