chris hernandez - "go nuclear" canvas paintings
DESCRIPTION
Images pertaining to nuclear concepts.TRANSCRIPT
CHRIS HERNANDEZ “Go Nuclear” Canvas Paintings
These works deal with processes and capabilities which, when unleashed, not only change their
surroundings, but also the individuals who interact with them. Spectators appreciate potential
danger if safely viewed from afar. There is an awe or dread of enormous and overwhelming forces
taking place. On one hand, we abhor danger, but we appreciate a spectacle if we can see it
disconnectedly within the protected walls of our homes, or as a tiny photo in a book or via the
internet; separated by both time and place. We can also appreciate the beauty which takes place if
such events occur in a completely different context so as to imply some form of safety, or if the
occurrences are too distant to seem relevant. The irony is that this distance is what indicates
whether an event is terrible or not. In the Twentieth Century, the local disruptions society has
experienced, which have brought much pain, death and suffering, pale in scope and size to those far
away, remote ones witness beyond the confines of our planet.
These series of paintings illustrate the various events and processes associated with the atomic
forces and make a comparison between types of nuclear events. Furthermore, the series depicts an
association with some of the often overlooked occurrences of the nuclear process which seem
nonthreatening only due to their extreme distances from us. The work highlights the grand physical
processes which take place on enormous scales but without any of the social, moral or
environmental attachments people put onto them because of turbulent geopolitical histories and
technological disasters. These works are not a commentary about the state of nuclear power,
weapons, or technologies. They are a detached observation of both the natural and unnatural
nuclear reactions, and our interactions with them. The works bring safety to a dangerous situation
and sterilize a normally threatening occurrence.