Kay Bowring

I am Kay Bowring, an artist working on drawings related to the significance of the Chernobyl disaster of April 1986, when reactor #4 blew up. People were evacuated, hundreds of pets were abandoned or killed; the area is still radioactive, yet it is a thriving post-nuclear ecosystem. My pieces, which draw from archival and contemporary photographs, are not intended to be wholly realistic. They ask the viewer to contemplate what happens when responsibility is abdicated by those who should keep us safe—workplaces; the military; civic, local and national governments; and by those who we should keep safe—each other; our pets; wild animals; the environment. Chernobyl is usually portrayed as an individual, time-and-location-limited event. It is much more than that.

I have used watercolour, pastel pencils, pastels and acrylics. The Elephant’s Foot (1) uses acrylic and watercolour on a sheet of 200 lb. Arches paper (30×22 ½). The chalk pastels are: (2) “The Old Man & his Dog Go Home”, 25×19 ½ (Canson paper), (3) “The Liquidators”, 29×21 (heavy print paper, generic); (4) “Radio Active”, 25×19 ½ (Canson paper); (5) “The Dog Waits”, 26x 29 ½ (heavy print paper, generic); and (7) “Red Dog”, 26 x 20 (heavy print paper, generic). The only watercolour and pastel pencils work is (6) “Dog & Ducks”, 20 x 15 (Arches paper).

The Chernobyl accident was disastrous, yet not wholly unexpected, given previous documented nuclear accidents. By refiguring and reimagining archival materials, my work aims to highlight some of the innocent, unseen, and unrepresented victims of Chernobyl: the brave liquidators, forced to go in and clean up and the dogs who now thrive, descendants of those left behind during the panicked evacuation. Ultimately, my work asks us to remember the interconnectedness of people, animals, and our environment and reminds us of the folly of hubris. The dogs have survived and thrived—humanity may not, if we don’t recognize this.