Taryn Simon collaborated with Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation (ROSATOM) to make the world’s first ever work of art produced from nuclear material.
Produced on May 21, 2015, Simon’s Black Square XVII is currently being stored in a concrete reinforced steel container, within a holding chamber surrounded by clay-rich soil, at the Radon nuclear waste disposal plant in Sergiev Posad, located 72 km northeast of Moscow. It will reside at the Radon facility until its radioactive properties have diminished to levels deemed safe for human exposure and exhibition. Cast within the nuclear waste mass is a two-ply cylindrical steel capsule holding a letter to the future written by Taryn Simon.
Central to the artist’s concept for this project is the agreement that Garage Museum of Contemporary Art will be the repository for the artwork when it is completed, raising questions of permanence, preservation, visibility, and ownership. In effect, this is Garage’s first permanent work of art, although for centuries to come the only evidence of its existence will be the site that awaits its installation, and the plaque that tells its story.
Black Square XVII was created during the centenary year of Kazimir Malevich’s Black Square. It continues Simon’s ongoing series of works entitled Black Square, which she initiated in 2006, focusing on the consequences of man’s inventions. To create each Black Square, Simon collects objects, documents, and individuals within a black field that has precisely the same measurements as Kazimir Malevich’s 1915 suprematist work of the same name.
For the exhibition Field Research: A Progress Report, a custom designed void that has been integrated into Garage’s building, where Black Square XVII will be permanently displayed from 3015.
Status: 2015–3015
Researcher: Taryn Simon
