Art exhibition: Beauty of Destruction

Currently on display at the Daniel Blau gallery is "Beauty of Destruction". This is a set of original photographic prints of atomic test explosions. The photos date from 1947 to 1955 and were taken at various test sites in the US and on various Pacific islands. The exhibit commemorates the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 60 years ago this month.

The Daniel Blau gallery is located at the top of Odeonsplatz, just next to Sotherby's there.

There is a set of around 20 small prints (A5 sized) which costs 17,500.

The single prints (A4 sized) are 4,000 each. I bought two for the study.

If you're on Odeonsplatz and have 5 minutes to kill before meeting someone at Tambosi or the SFCC, take a look. The exhibition is open Tuesday to Saturday 10am - 7pm and runs until Saturday 3rd September 2005.

http://www.danielblau.de/

Did I understand that right...you just paid 8000 Euro for 2 prints of Atomic explosions?

i find the glorification of this type of destruction fairly repulsive and the title of the exhibition, in view of its subject matter, completely oxymoronic.

Heavy. Very heavy. Back when I was in my further education (contrary to popular belief I did have one) one of my lecturers was Charlie Reddie, the official government photographer for the first British 'A' bomb tests. He was slowly dying of leukemia. His skin was yellow-orange and sadly he must have passed away over 2 decades ago now. RIP.

One day whilst working alone in the photographic darkroom he came in and poured out part of his soul to me. He said, "Don't put your money into banks. Spend it as you get it. You don't know that there will be a tomorrow.". He knew he was dying. He had been located far too close to the bombs when they had detonated. He sired only one child that lived beyond birth, and with (as he described) horrific deformities. I put his remarks down to the times. Then, in 1980, we were still inside the Cold War. This was pre-Cruise Missiles and Raymond Briggs' snowman.

I love good photography, but I'm not sure I want to see the exhibition. It brings back too many bad memories of Charlie.

If anyone is interested in this kind of stuff, then you can't go past the book "100 Suns" by Micheal Light, a beautiful book containing high quality photos of every atmospheric test conducted, and at 21 quid from amazon, a wee bit cheaper!

I was in Nam. I've seen it all. I don't need to go to this exhibition. Picking pieces of flesh off my bayonet, smelling napalm in the morning..

The exhibition isn't necessarily glorifying or condoning destruction. There is a certain draw that images of destruction and violence have. It's evidenced by the popularity of violent movies and video games (and hockey). We enjoy the feeling of being in the role of destroyer sometimes. It's human nature - not that we should be proud of that.

If you divorce the image from the subject matter, the forms themselves are sometimes quite beatiful. The balance of a mushroom cloud has a sort of internal consistancy and weight that I find appealing - despite the fact that its appearance is a signal of massive destruction.

At any rate, images also serve to spark debate. Sometimes, at least in my opinion, art is more about debate and provocation than beauty. The images are at least provocative.

Walked by the place almost everyday during the semester...

I went to see this and was quite underwhelmed by it. How many black and white pictures of mushroom clouds do you need to see before it gets tedious?