{"id":2347571,"date":"2026-03-27T10:11:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T10:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2347571"},"modified":"2026-03-27T10:11:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T10:11:14","slug":"atomic-dragons-opened-at-pitzer-college-then-the-u-s-bombed-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/atomic-dragons-opened-at-pitzer-college-then-the-u-s-bombed-iran\/","title":{"rendered":"“Atomic Dragons” opened at Pitzer College, then the U.S. bombed Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The anti-nuclear artists collective whose work is on display at Pitzer College in Claremont never predicted a nuclear proliferation crisis would break out in the Middle East during their exhibit, or how grimly topical their work would quickly become as a result.<\/p>\n

\u201cAtomic Dragons,\u201d wrapping April 4 with a closing-day symposium<\/u><\/a> of nuclear experts, is the work of SWANS, which stands for Slow War Against the Nuclear State. The group is made up of artists, activists and academics with ties to the nuclear industry, including children and spouses of nuclear industrial complex workers \u2014 putting a new spin on the \u201cnuclear family.\u201d<\/p>\n

The show examines the environmental and human cost of the atomic era through an artistic lens, tracing present day nuclear risk back to its Cold War roots.<\/p>\n

The SWANS\u2019 warning call has always been clear, but \u201dAtomic Dragons\u201d took on a whole new meaning when the United States and Israel launched a joint assault on Iran<\/u><\/a> over its illicit stockpile of nuclear materials Feb. 28, three weeks after the show opened.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re at the start of what will be an exceedingly dangerous period in terms of the Iranian nuclear program,\u201d nuclear policy expert Scott Sagan, who co-directs Stanford\u2019s Center for International Security and Cooperation, said. \u201cWe\u2019re likely to have a major, major conflict over this.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a time of acute nuclear anxiety, SWANS is an outlet through which the artists process the fear and gravity of our atomic reality.<\/p>\n

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Fiona Amundsen, \u201cYoshino Cherry Tree, Sanyo Buntokuden, Hiroshima (lovingly held),\u201d 2025, from the series, \u201cThe Trees are Leaking Light,\u201d 2024-25, 4 x 5 inch negative processed using seaweed, gathered from the ocean current of the Fukushima wastewater release, inkjet washi photograph. <\/p>\n

(Chloe Shrager)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

\u201cMy maybe-naive hope is that the artworks help to provide an avenue into that understanding of the severity of what it means to play with the nuclear,\u201d said Fiona Amundsen, whose arresting film photography of three trees in Hiroshima that survived the 1945 nuclear bomb was developed using contaminated seaweed growing in the Fukushima wastewater release line.<\/p>\n

The resulting images are dotted with delicate white flares: trace amounts of radioactive tritium<\/u><\/a> that transferred to the film from the nuclear effluent during the chemical processing, bearing physical witness to the usually invisible effects of radiation.<\/p>\n

Amundsen\u2019s work is in keeping with the rest of the show, which fills two halls at the liberal arts school with visual and multimedia works that probe the persistence of radioactive materials. Artifacts from the birth of the nuclear age are also featured, including items recovered from postwar Hiroshima and a letter from the father of the nuclear bomb, Robert J. Oppenheimer<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The artworks are as likely to unsettle as they are to move.<\/p>\n

Elin o\u2019Hara slavick labored over an expansive series of photochemical drawings of every above-ground nuclear test \u2014 528 in total<\/u><\/a>, a selection of which are featured in the exhibit\u2014 on salvaged darkroom paper from Caltech, the institution that played a role in developing the detonators for the U.S. nuclear bombs dropped on Japan<\/u><\/a> under the top secret Project Camel.<\/p>\n

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\"A <\/picture>\n
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elin o\u2019Hara slavick, selection from \u201cThere Have Been 528 Atmospheric Nuclear Tests to Date,\u201d 2022, photo-chemical drawings on outdated and fogged silver gelatin paper. <\/p>\n

(Chloe Shrager)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

Slavick said she found the abandoned silver-gelatin paper, which was fogged despite being stored in closed boxes, in the basement of the university near a door labeled \u201cRadiation Science,\u201d which led her to believe radiation exposure from Caltech\u2019s Manhattan Project past distorted the photographic paper.<\/p>\n

SWANS seems to double as a support group for families impacted by the nuclear industry. Many members believe they\u2019ve lost loved ones to radiation, or were themselves likely impacted by early-life exposure as children of Manhattan Project engineers. The tension between the anti-nuclear artwork and its artists\u2019 familial ties to the production of the very technology they reject is an enticing dance of its own.<\/p>\n

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\"A <\/picture>\n
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Judith Dancoff, \u201cThe Milk Pathway (still),\u201d 2023, video, briefcase, antique milk bottles, and tempera. <\/p>\n

(Chloe Shrager)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

Writer Judith Dancoff links her hyperthyroidism and long-term reproductive issues from a pituitary gland tumor to childhood radiation exposure during a summer spent at the Oak Ridge uranium enrichment site in Tennessee where her father worked as a student of Oppenheimer. Her father died young of cancer, and the story is woven into her featured SWANS work.<\/p>\n

One of the largest pieces on display at \u201cAtomic Dragons\u201d is Nancy Buchanan\u2019s interactive full-wall exhibit of documents her father brought home from his government work as a Manhattan Project physicist, alongside material from the FBI file on his mysterious death, on display for viewers to read under looming red letters spelling out \u201cSECURITY.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"An <\/picture>\n
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Nancy Buchanan, \u201cSecurity,\u201d 1987, installation with file folders, photos, map pins, and documents. <\/p>\n

(Chloe Shrager)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

The current crisis in Iran has sent memories bubbling to the surface for the collective, and chills down the spines of viewers.<\/p>\n

Many have expressed fears of an Orwellian-style forever war<\/u><\/a>, or worse, the use of the atomic weapon invented \u201cto end all wars<\/u><\/a>\u201d in a twisted attempt to do so, poisoning the region<\/u><\/a> as a byproduct. But nuclear policy expert Sagan said the likelihood of the conflict escalating to involve nuclear weapons is \u201cexceedingly low,\u201d even if Iran has the capability to build them.<\/p>\n

Iran possesses enough 60% highly-enriched uranium to build about 10 nuclear weapons if further enriched to 90% weapons grade, he said. This could take a matter of weeks to complete depending on the state of Iran\u2019s enrichment centrifuges, which Trump claimed to have \u201cobliterated<\/u><\/a>\u201d during air strikes in June.<\/p>\n

Iran could also craft a primitive nuclear device out of minimally enriched materials for an offensive attack (\u201c60% could actually create an explosion, it just wouldn\u2019t be a very efficient one,\u201d according to Sagan), but George Perkovich, senior fellow for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace\u2019s Nuclear Policy Program and author of \u201cHow to Assess Nuclear Threats in the 21st Century,\u201d points out that \u201cyou have to build more than one for it to be useful,\u201d especially under the wrath of a nuclear-armed West\u2019s expected response.<\/p>\n

What is more likely, and probably more dangerous, experts say, is the now-heightened long-term risk of global proliferation. \u201cThis war is going to suggest to some countries that if they want to secure their sovereignty, they need nuclear weapons,\u201d Sagan said.<\/p>\n

\n
\"A <\/picture>\n
\n

elin o\u2019Hara slavick, selection from \u201cThere Have Been 528 Atmospheric Nuclear Tests to Date,\u201d 2022, photo-chemical drawings on outdated and fogged silver gelatin paper. <\/p>\n

(Chloe Shrager)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

Since 1968, the world nuclear order has rested on the delicate architecture of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty<\/u><\/a>, enforcing the international norm that countries without nuclear weapons won\u2019t try to get them, and countries with nuclear weapons won\u2019t help arm their allies. Now, experts say the rulebook has been thrown out.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat this does is it breaks the old system that was based on the non-proliferation treaty,\u201d said Perkovich, who has worked on nuclear issues for 44 years. \u201cIt\u2019s now \u2018might makes right,\u2019 everybody\u2019s on their own, friends versus enemies. I think the terms now change, and we\u2019re not bargaining.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though the timing of the military operation in Iran with the \u201cAtomic Dragons\u201d exhibit could not be described as kismet as much as brutally ironic, slavick said the \u201csick and sad thing\u201d is that \u201cit\u2019s always topical when you\u2019re an American.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do this. We wage wars. We are the leading nuclear country,\u201d she said, speaking to the heart of the SWANS message: In a world where nuclear materials exist, it is not a matter of if humans will be harmed, but when.<\/p>\n

There is a historic relationship between visual art and nuclear war, said Jim Walsh, a senior research associate at the MIT Security Studies Program on nuclear weapons risk issues in Iran and North Korea, who is also a speaker at the exhibit\u2019s closing symposium. As the world enters a \u201cmore disruptive period\u201d after the post-Cold War cooling of nuclear tensions, he expects to soon see \u201ca flowering of artistic projects,\u201d as nuclear risk reaches a local peak. \u201cIt\u2019s a super powerful thing involving life and death, the planet, the entire environment, love and hate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAtomic Dragons,\u201d which also features work created decades ago, highlights questions that are as relevant today as they were at the dawn of the nuclear era: Can we make the world safe enough so we can once again dream? Is the strength of a country found in its military rather than its culture? Is fear our gross national product?<\/p>\n

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Symposium: Art, Science, and the Nuclear Legacy <\/p>\n

A talk by nuclear expert panelists Jim Walsh and David Richardson, as well as a viewing of the \u201cAtomic Dragons\u201d art exhibit and a conversation with the artists. Coffee and a light lunch will be served.<\/p>\n

When: <\/b>Saturday, April 4, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Where:<\/b> George C. S. Benson Auditorium, Pitzer College
Tickets:<\/b> Free RSVP<\/a>
Info:<\/b> Details on event website<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.latimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The anti-nuclear artists collective whose work is on display at Pitzer College in Claremont never predicted a nuclear proliferation crisis would break out in the Middle East during their exhibit, or how grimly topical their work would quickly become as a result. \u201cAtomic Dragons,\u201d wrapping April 4 with a closing-day symposium of nuclear experts, is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2347572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2347571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Atomic-Dragons-opened-at-Pitzer-College-then-the-US-bombed.com2F512F292Ff1b0a68441dfa8ed3af1a086-scaled.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2347571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2347571"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2347571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2347573,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2347571\/revisions\/2347573"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2347572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2347571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2347571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2347571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}