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Radioactive for Thousands of Years [from the series Nuclear Waste(d)]
Radioactive for Thousands of Years [from the series Nuclear Waste(d)]
Radioactive for Thousands of Years [from the series Nuclear Waste(d)]

Radioactive for Thousands of Years [from the series Nuclear Waste(d)]

Artist (American, born 1939)
Date1988
Mediumsprayed acrylic and photography on photolinen
DimensionsCanvas: 11 × 32 × 3/4 in. (27.9 × 81.3 × 1.9 cm)
ClassificationsPainting
Credit LineGift of Judy Chicago and Donald Woodman, 2011
Object number2011.11.1
DescriptionThis painting on a photograph pictures a painted barbed-wire fence in the foreground with a green radioactive warning sign that reads “Radiation Thousands of Years.” Behind the fence is a grassy field with a green-painted tailing pile from the mine situated behind the tailings.
Text Entries
In the Nuclear Waste(d) series, Judy Chicago addresses the negative consequences of the nuclear industry in New Mexico, the birthplace of the atomic bomb. These are collaborative works that employ photographs by Donald Woodman of various nuclear-related sites throughout the state, that were then painted on by Judy Chicago. Among the sites the series addresses are the Trinity Site, where the first atomic bomb was detonated; Grants, where much of the uranium was mined for the bombs, causing great health and environmental problems for the Native Americans upon whose lands the mines are located; and WIPP, the waste site in southern New Mexico. Radiation for Thousands of Years references the contamination of the landscape by uranium mining, largely on Native American lands in New Mexico. The green pile pictured is a tailings pile that remains radioactive and that has made the land uninhabitable.
On View
Not on view