At 01.23.40 on 26th April 1986 an explosion at Chernobyl’s 4th nuclear reactor in Ukraine tore off the roof releasing a raspberry coloured radioactive flame which thrust upwards into the night sky. Iodine and caesium nuclides escaped in a contaminated radioactive cloud which swept across Europe as far as Finland.
This technological systems failure killed thousands, forced the permanent evacuation of 50,000 from the nearby city of Pripyat, and crippled the Soviet Union. It is estimated that the disaster has cost the international community over $235 billion.
The insidious invisible effects of radioactive contamination around Chernobyl has turned the entire region into a permanent wilderness.
My journey to the Exclusion Zone carried with it the additional stigma of engaging with a dark and toxic form of tourism based on a fascination with death and disaster. As an artist my intentions were to document the relationship between Chernobyl’s environmental catastrophe and the socio – economic degradation of a demographic which followed from it. Arguably, in times of uncertainty such as now, understanding the past is not only a human instinct, but an imperative.
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