Artist Isao Hashimoto’s animation, 1945-1998, shows when and where 2053 nuclear bombs were exploded by different countries over 53 years. The combination of scientific data with imagery and sound holds my attention to the end, where a visual summary reveals which countries have most bombed the world.
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Multimedia artwork
“2053” – This is the number of nuclear explosions conducted in various parts of the globe.*
Profile of the artist: Isao HASHIMOTOBorn in Kumamoto prefecture, Japan in 1959.
Worked for 17 years in financial industry as a foreign exchange dealer. Studied at Department of Arts, Policy and Management of Musashino Art University, Tokyo.
Currently working for Lalique Museum, Hakone, Japan as a curator.
Created artwork series expressing, in the artist’s view, “the fear and the folly of nuclear weapons”:
1. “1945-1998” © 2003
2. “Overkilled”
3. “The Names of Experiments”About “1945-1998” ©2003
“This piece of work is a bird’s eye view of the history by scaling down a month length of time into one second. No letter is used for equal messaging to all viewers without language barrier. The blinking light, sound and the numbers on the world map show when, where and how many experiments each country have conducted. I created this work for the means of an interface to the people who are yet to know of the extremely grave, but present problem of the world.”
Contact the artist:Should you have any query regarding this artwork, please contact e-mail address below:
hashi123ping@amy.hi-ho.nepong.jp
* The number excludes both tests by North Korea (October 2006 and May 2009).