Infinity City: SHADOW Exhibition Enters Phase Two

For Immediate Release

July 1996

Seattle Visual artists Ann Rosenthal and Stephen Moore announce Infinity City: SHADOW, the second part of their collaborative exhibition that explores life in the atomic age.

Begun to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Atomic Bomb, Infinity City has evolved to include the cumulative heritage of the Manhattan Project: vast amounts of radioactive waste and debris; an extensive nuclear arsenal; and the erosion of our belief in the future of the planet.

As the cold war ends, and as aging and failing commercial reactors are decommissioned, costs to dismantle "hot" nuclear hardware escalate, and permanent disposal sites remain elusive. Our air and water are still at risk, and radiation-related illnesses continue to be reported, yet government and industry fail to take decisive action or assume responsibility.

The mission of the Manhattan Project has been fulfilled, and in the process a new world was spawned-one that must contend with the toxic legacy of those awesome experiments. Until the nuclear problem is resolved, we all live under the specter that was released when the atom was split.

Infinity City: SHADOW is scheduled to be shown at Mount San Jacinto College, San Jacinto (CA) November 3 through 27 of this year. While focused on the anniversary of the Atomic Bomb, new elements will be introduced in this installation, including a full-scale profile of "Mark 17", the first deployable thermonuclear device (hydrogen bomb). The Mark 17 was 1200 times more powerful than the bomb that was detonated over Hiroshima in 1945, with a yield of approximately 15 megatons.

SHADOW is also scheduled for the Bellevue (WA) Art Museum February 22 through March 30, 1997. In addition to the gallery installation, the exhibition will be produced on the World Wide Web. A computer will be available at the museum to encourage an international dialogue via the Internet concerning the issues addressed in the exhibition.

Infinity City Online has been rated in the "Top Five Percent of all Web Sites" in the current edition of World Wide Web Top 1000 by Point Communications and R.F. Holznagel.

Ann Rosenthal and Stephen Moore have been involved since 1982 with projects that examine the social and personal effects of life in the shadow of "The Bomb". They believe the advent of the A-bomb was a monumental event in the history of humanity, that the stress of living in the atomic age is much underrated, and that the promise of the "Peaceful Atom" has become a lethal myth.

Infinity City: SHADOW can accommodate a wide range of exhibition spaces, static and electronic, and is also produced as a limited edition "Artist Book". Additional information is available, and inquiries are invited.