By Vincent Bezuidenhout and Chad Rossouw

On 22 September 1979, at 00:53 Universal Time, US satellite Vela 6911 recorded a distinctive double flash in an area where the South Atlantic meets the Indian Ocean off the coast of South Africa. Designed to look for clandestine atmospheric nuclear tests, and already operational for more than 10 years, Vela indicated a nuclear explosion of approximately 3 kilotons. Subsequent investigations by various agencies into the incident came to contradictory conclusions ranging from a meteorite hitting the satellite to other natural phenomena, but the prime suspect has always been a joint South African-Israeli nuclear test. Documents from these investigations are either classified or heavily redacted.

Using sculpture and print, Bezuidenhout and Rossouw make reference to both the so-called Vela Incident and the documentation regarding the 1979 event. Through simplicity of form, absence and the geometry of aerospace engineering, this work examines the complex interaction between secrecy, government and fear which intersected with South Africa’s own history of aggressive Nationalism and modernist aspirations.