Criticality Facility, Pelindaba, South Africa
‘Fail Deadly is a concept in nuclear military strategy that encourages deterrence by guaranteeing an immediate, automatic, and overwhelming response to an attack. The term fail-deadly was coined as a contrast to fail-safe’.Fail Deadly is set against the history of South Africa’s clandestine nuclear weapons program during apartheid. In the 1970's and 80’s South Africa built six atom bombs in complete secrecy. As the apartheid system crumbled the program was swiftly disbanded before the advent of democracy.
Incorporating strategies which include photojournalism, image appropriation, landscape and aerial photography as well as archival practises, I construct a narrative that allows me to reflect upon and re-contextualize this transitory piece of history.
The cornerstone of this project, entitled The Pelindaba Collection, consists of more than 900 pages of declassified documents from various sources, including The Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, The South African History Archive, as well as N.S.A., C.I.A. and internal government communications I obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. Large sections within these documents have been redacted, which led to the creation of various photo based works including the Black Landscapes and Holepunch series. By using absence and omission I reflect on past and present censorship in South Africa and how the history of spaces are simultaneously the history of powers. Exhibition ESSAY
Building 5100, Pelindaba, South Africa
Cipher #1, Kalahari Desert, South Africa
Die Groot Krokodil
Original Image courtesy of Mungo Poore ©
The Pelindaba Collection
The Pelindaba Collection is a multi-year endeavor to create one of the largest archives of declassified documents from apartheid South Africa’s clandestine nuclear weapons program. Sources including The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (Washington, D.C.), The South African History Archive (Johannesburg), and N.S.A., C.I.A. and internal government communications obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Large sections within these documents have been redacted.
Installation RE 21: This is Not Here, Brooklyn, NY.
The Pelindaba Collection
Declassified documents printed on standard A4 copy paper, dimensions variable.
The Holepunch series consists of images I made at various locations in South Africa which previously functioned as secret nuclear weapons facilities. As the apartheid regime started to crumble they disbanded the entire program including all warheads, missiles and facilities before the advent of democracy. These images are made by punching a square hole in each negative before making the print.
The Pelindaba Intervention, 2014
Pigment Ink Prints on Newsprint
21x 12 x 16 inches
Documentation of an intervention staged at the Mid-Manhattan Library Picture Collection, 2014. Declassified documents regarding South Africans clandestine nuclear weapons program where anonymously inserted into folders in the collection, thereby becoming permanent records. This documentation consists of one reference image from each of the folders.
The Black Landscapes are made with a printing technique I developed of printing a layer of black over landscape images at the sites of former nuclear weapons facilities. The technique renders a redacted landscape, in negative, the detail of which can only be seen at a certain angle.
