Sor

Sorrow and Hope

Red Brick Warehouse, Yokohama, Japan 2012
Embassy of Sweden, Tokyo, Japan 2012

On March 11, 2011 the big tragedy took place in Japan. I followed the news from Fukushima many times a day. Suddenly I became aware of - the most unlikely can happen - a core melt down because of a LOCA, Loss of Coolant Accident. In Sweden we have no tsunamis, but we have reactors of the construction and the same age as the reactors in Fukushima. Incidents have happened but yet no serious accidents.

Scientific findings are not 100% safe truths. Absolute truths do not exist. In our modern, high-tech world we must have confidence in our experts. The human being is not perfect. The most unlikely can happen everywhere. Higher and higher effects are taken out from the reactors. Earning money is often more important than safety in Sweden as well as anywhere else.

For more than forty years ago the Swedish scientist Hans Palmstjerna told his friend ... perhaps you find me cynical, when telling my inmost thoughts. It will be no stop for the nuclear industry until a big accident will happen in the densely populated Europe. It is not enough with a core melt down in Russia or USA...

I have used the colours black and blue in my installation Sorrow and Hope. The black colour has often been used to represent sorrow and seriousness. Blue symbolises truth, intellect, wisdom and hope. In Sweden we are talking about "The Blue Flower of Hope".

Please read my installation from left to the right. More and more blue colour will appear. The "Blue Flower of Hope" is growing. We do have Hope.

 

Addendum In my former life before being a full-time artist I worked as a research engineer for fifteen years in a nuclear research station in Sweden.