Thomas Ruff: jpegs. Cologne, Dumont, 2009, ill. unpagenated
In jpeg bi01, a digitalized photograph of a mushroom cloud above Bikini Atoll is disruoed by the overlaid grid of the file. Bikini Atoll, located in the central Pacific, is best known for its role in a series of nucelar tests conducted by the United States in the 1940s and 1950s, forcing the native population to evacuate; until today the people of Bikini have not returned to their homelands. By forcing on a historical image, given the present context, Ruff subtly and disturbingly reminds viewers of both the possibilities and limitations of technology to alter nature and human relationships.
C-print, Diasec, in artist frame. Frame: 237,5 × 319 cm
(93 ½ × 125 ⅝ in.). Signed, dated and titled in pencil on the reverse: Thomas Ruff 2007 bi01. One of three numbered prints. [3324] Framed
Provenance
Private Collection, Belgium (acquired in 2008 from Zwirner & Wirth, New York)
Thomas Ruff: jpegs. Cologne, Dumont, 2009, ill. unpagenated
In jpeg bi01, a digitalized photograph of a mushroom cloud above Bikini Atoll is disruoed by the overlaid grid of the file. Bikini Atoll, located in the central Pacific, is best known for its role in a series of nucelar tests conducted by the United States in the 1940s and 1950s, forcing the native population to evacuate; until today the people of Bikini have not returned to their homelands. By forcing on a historical image, given the present context, Ruff subtly and disturbingly reminds viewers of both the possibilities and limitations of technology to alter nature and human relationships.
