NYC Scene: Fukushima Autoradiography

Shimpei Takeda, Trace, #16, Lake Hayama

The selection of works currently on display at the International Center of Photography (ICP; 6th Ave. and 43 St., pay what you wish on Friday 5-8 pm) makes you wonder whether these works have been created during a doodling class at the nearest daycare. The walls of ICP are plastered with images that betray startling lack of talent, substance, and skill. How these authors managed to display their works at ICP is puzzling.

The only exceptions to this unfortunate rule are contributed by the Japanese authors Sohei Nishino and Shimpei Takeda. Sohei Nishino creates gorgeous and mind-boggling "diorama maps" of large cities from a mosaic of black-and-white photos that he takes at a multitude of different locations in each city. His maps follow artistic and visual traditions of the medieval paintings and icons, in which the rules of perspective were dictated by the logic and importance of places and events and their interrelations. From afar, Nishino's maps look like Boschian landscapes and up close they resemble gigantic jigsaw puzzles or scrapbooks; they can be viewed briefly or contemplated and examined at length, depending on the viewer's attention span and level of interest.

Shimpei Takeda deserves an honorable mention for his project titled Trace - cameraless records of radioactive contamination. Trace is a series of "autoradiographs" of radioactive soil from the area around the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which was damaged as a result of the earthquake and tsunami in 2011. In the following year, Takeda, who was born in Sukagawa, about 40 miles from Fukushima, collected soil samples at various locations around the power plant. He then placed these samples onto sheets of photosensitive film (Ilford HP5 Plus) and exposed the film over a period of one month. The process is explained on Takeda's website and is very similar to the autoradiography method used in biomedical research to study the distribution of radioactive tracers in ex vivo tissue samples. The level of radiation at Lake Hayama (image above) is given as 1.8 µSv/h in air and 6.4 µSv/h in the soil, which means that Lake Hayama is not a place to linger. It is the most contaminated place in the collection, followed by Nihonmatsu Castle (1.9 µSv/h in air, 4.3 µSv/h in soil) and Asako Kuni-tsuko shrine (air, 1.2 µSv/h; soil, 3.8 µSv/h). The remaining sites have considerably lower dose rates. Several Trace prints are now displayed at ICP, but their impact is diminished in comparison to the impression created by the entire collection on the author's site.

I used to tell my colleagues that they ought to print their beautiful immunofluorescence images and sell them as art, but now it appears that autoradiography images can also become art. Notably, Takeda successfully financed his project through kickstarter and sold limited edition gelatin prints of the works from the Trace series.

Update 01.03.2015: See a more recent post, Fukushima Shoes, about a high concept design created by Sputniko! and Masaya Kushino to draw attention to the consequences of the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

NYC Scene: Another 2nd Avenue Cross

Epiphany Church, New York. Photo: LB

Epic leak from higher source:

Conquer Evil with the Force!

Aim above the red brick wall,

Toss One Ring to Rule Them All!

Here is another oft-seen, yet never consciously registered place on Second Avenue that I have discovered lately. The Roman Catholic Epiphany Church in Gramercy (239 East 21^st Street), a Modernist creation by Belfatto & Pavarini constructed in 1965-67, looks appealing in bright light, but at dusk its windowless façade stirs up thoughts of Mount Doom and Red Square. The original Church of the Epiphany of Our Lord was founded in 1868 on the site of Rose Hill, the mansion of Horatio Gates, the Revolutionary War hero and the victor in the Battle of Saratoga. This rather grand church with a single tower was designed by Napoleon LeBrun, who designed several other churches in New York and Philadelphia. In 1963 the church was destroyed by a gigantic fire. Four years later the new building on the same spot was dedicated by the powerful and controversial Cardinal Spellman. 

Epiphany Church, 2nd Ave façade
stained glass above the entrance

The Epiphany Peace Garden nearby is dedicated to the neighborhood people who died in 9/11 attacks. A plaque on the fence honors Tadeusz Kosciuszko, another hero of the American Revolutionary War and the leader of the 1794 Uprising in Poland. In America, Kosciuszko distinguished himself as a military engineer who constructed, among others, the fortifications at West Point. Kosciuszko participated in the Battle of Saratoga and served under Gates’ command, and a plaque commemorating his visit to Gates’ Rose Hill estate in 1797 was installed on the fence of the Epiphany garden. This plaque reads: 

Estate of General Horatio Gates (1728-1806) Victor of the Battle of Saratoga 1777

Major General Tadeusz Kosciuszko (1746–1817)

Colonel of Engineers in the Continental Army (1776–1784) – designer of the fortifications at West Point, veteran of the Northern and the Southern campaigns – the patriot of two continents stayed here 10–29 September 1797 – to visit his former commander – to renew friendships forged in the struggle for American liberty – & to mourn the passing of comrades-in-arms. He received here the sympathy & well-wishes of New Yorkers for his daring & gallantry in leading the Polish Insurrection of 1794 against overwhelming invading forces. He is as pure a son of liberty as I have ever known, and of that liberty which is to go to all, and not to the few and rich alone. Thomas Jefferson to Gates 1798.

Erected 1997

Epiphany Parish * Knights of Lithuania * Kosciuszko Foundation * Pilsudski Institute * Polish-American Congress * Sons of the Revolution NYS 

Plaque commemorating
Kosciuszko's visit to Rose Hill in 1797

For the New York drivers, the Kosciuszko Bridge, first opened in 1939 and now doomed for demolition and replacement, is a frequent source of frustration as a bottleneck between Brooklyn and Queens. However, another Kosciusko Twin Bridge (on the way upstate a "z" got lost), over the Mohawk River near Albany and Saratoga, in my personal geography leads to happier places - to the Gore Mountain in the Adirondacks.

Photos: LB 2013

NYC Scene: Climbing the Walls

24 Bond Street, New York

Golden dancers by Bruce Williams (1998)

People climbing up the wall

Wearing naught but coat of gold:

These days NoHo prices sting,

Choose between your pants and bling!

I must have passed by this building on Bond Street (24 Bond Street, between Lafayette and Bowery) dozens of times before, but never paid attention to it until recently an out-of-town guest pointed it out while we were walking up Lafayette Street. With a fresh eye, my guest has spotted these golden figures on the wall of an old house, "dancing ivy", as one blog called them. 

A brief search revealed that the gold figures on the outside of the building were created by Bruce Williams in 1998 and had to be approved post factum (and not without resistance) by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2008, when NoHo Historic District was expanded and absorbed Bond Street. It appears that the figures were installed in two batches: the first group perched in front of the second story window followed by the second group that climbs higher up the wall on the left side, which was added around 2010. The authors’ sketches suggest his ambition to extend the dancing troupe all the way to the roof. Note that not all of these agile creatures are human, a few are well endowed and put their assets to good, if naughty use.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission Report (which contains interesting historical information and numerous photos) describes 24 Bond Street as a store-and-loft building constructed in 1893 by Buchman & Deisler, the architectural firm that also created Nos. 21 and 42-44 on Bond Street and a number of other buildings in the city.

Earlier in the 20^th century, the building was occupied by businesses (paper box, photo engraving, and artificial flower companies), but after the decline of the manufacturing in Manhattan in the 1970s, a different crop of inhabitants moved in. Between 1972 and 1989, the space on the second floor was occupied by the studio of Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989), a famed photographer known for his sleek, yet shocking black-and-white images. In the 1980s Mapplethorpe moved his studio to a loft on 23^rd Street, which was purchased with the money provided by his long-term companion and mentor Sam Wagstaff (1921-1987), but maintained a darkroom in the building on Bond Street. Both Wagstaff and Mapplethorpe died of AIDS. Not long before the photographer’s death, the Mapplethorpe Foundation was established to promote his work and artistic vision and to support the HIV and AIDS research. A collection of Mapplethorpe prints is kept at the Guggenheim Museum. A video report about a recent exhibition of his photos can be found here (exquisite and explicit).

Update 7.7.13. A rare case when Google's snooping on me (and haven't we heard about this lately?) turns up something useful: here is an interview with Patti Smith, the legend of punk rock, who was Robert Mapplethorpe's lover and lifelong friend, about her memoir of their relationship, Just Kids, quite interesting. To refresh my memory, I listened to her Horses (that is her portrait by Mapplethorpe on the album cover) and was surprised to discover how enjoyable it was.

Since 1986, the ground floor has been used by the Gene Frankel Theatre. Gene Frankel (1919-2005), an influential theater director and acting coach, was one of the key figures in the creation of the Off Broadway scene in the 1950s and 60s and won three Obie awards for his productions. Apparently at one point the theater on Bond Street had its share of troubles with the Landmarks Commission because of its brightly painted facade, and the Commission seems to have won, because now the ground floor looks low-key, if not pristine. 

Photos by LB 2013

Meditation: I Am Here in This Body

Puerto Rico. Photo by Konstantine Sofer (2011).
See more of Kosta's wonderful photographs on Picasa. 

During a recent meditation, I received the following set of instructions for observing one's body and increasing one's awareness of the body. Despite its simplicity, I found this sequence to be surprisingly effective in two ways: as a means of breaking the cycle of restless thoughts and as a way to gain insight into the relationship between the mind and body. This meditation may be useful to people who tend to dissociate from their physical bodies or live in their heads. The sequence below can be used as a basic sketch that can be expanded, elaborated on, and adapted to one's needs.  

"Sit or lie down still. Relax your arms and legs. Call on the forces of light. Surround yourself with a protective bubble. Speak each of the following sentences, slowly and deliberately, and hold them in your mind. Reflect upon their meaning and observe images, thoughts, and sensations that might appear in your mind in response to these statements."

I am here.

I am here in this body.

I exist in this body.

I inhabit all of my body.

I feel my body’s boundaries.

I feel my body’s dimensions.

I sense all of my body’s surface.

I feel my body’s weight.

I trust my body.

I give in to gravity.

I am aware of my body’s sensations.

I accept my body’s sensations.
I sense my body's wisdom.

I am familiar with my body.

I have compassion for my body. 

I feel friendly towards my body.

Kykuit: A Patchwork Fairytale

Kykuit, view from south-east.

Kykuit (KY-kit or KY-cut, from the Dutch for “lookout”), the Rockefeller estate in Pocantico Hills near Tarrytown, NY, is like a fairytale: to enjoy it, you must accept its logic and suspend your disbelief. If you ask questions, especially those that start with a “why?” (e.g., “Why did Cinderella’s father marry a shrew and let her mistreat his daughter?”), the tale instantly loses its charm. So is Kykuit – delightful and enchanting on its own terms, when the rules of the outside world are placed on hold and the back story is forgotten.