Mary Kavanagh: Daughters of Uranium explores the legacy of the atomic age from the perspective of the sentient body and intergenerational trauma. Daughters of Uranium is a title redolent of both archaic chemical science and of generations born into an uncertain future. Citing the radioactive decay chain of Uranium 235, widely known for its use in the first atomic bomb, the elements in Uranium's family tree are referred to as "daughters."
In conjunction with her solo exhibitions at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery, The Founders’ Gallery, and the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, this publication brings together the evolving presentations of Kavanagh’s photographic and archival research into the Trinity Atomic Test Site at each gallery. Documentation of Kavanagh’s installations of cinematic projection, works on paper, artifacts, and a series of structures using light, glass, sound, and lead are accompanied by contributions from a distinguished group of contemporary scholars, curators and writers. Christina Cuthbertson, Lindsey Sharman, Jayne Wilkinson, and Peter C. van Wyck reflect on the personal and material repercussions ignited at the dawn of the nuclear age.
Authors: Cuthbertson, Christina; Sharman, Lindsey; Wilkinson, Jayne; van Wyck, Peter C.
Published: November 2020
Cost: $40 CAD
160 pages; 30 cm x 23.5 cm; hardcover
Interested in purchasing a copy? Contact Visitor Services at mail@kwag.on.ca or 519-579-5860 x0 for inquiries.