How to Conceal an Atomic Bomb: Indigenous Art, Political Truth, and the Atomic Age

Abstract

In this thesis, I examine artwork made by Indigenous artists who challenge ongoing harms from atomic testing on Indigenous lands. I argue that the visual arts have proven to be an important site for political agency for Indigenous peoples wronged during the Atomic Age. As case studies, I investigate work by artists in the U.S. and Australia such as T.C. Cannon (Kiowa/Caddo), Debbie Hansen (Spinifex), Will Wilson (Diné/Navajo), and Yhonnie Scarce (Kokatha/Nukunu) to illuminate the critical role visual art plays by inserting voices and conversations previously censored out by government propaganda concerning nuclear testing and its consequences. While grounded in art-historical methods for analyzing the form and meaning of artworks, I also situate the art I examine within relevant historical contexts, which involve economic, scientific, ecological, and political factors. The thesis is divided into three chapters, following an introduction. Chapter one focuses on three of T.C. Cannon’s artworks that utilize the iconic mushroom cloud, an image made iconic through U.S. government “peaceful atom” propaganda. Chapter two closely analyzes Debbie Hansen’s painting Maralinga: a composition titled after the most active British nuclear test site in Australia, and designed in the acrylic “dot” style that internationally identifies her as an Aboriginal Australian. Finally, the third chapter compares the local art histories of the previous chapters, initiating a global discussion concerning the ongoing effects and presence of the Atomic Age on Indigenous lands. This chapter also historicizes how Cannon and Hansen’s tactics of politicizing art made way for contemporary artists like Will Wilson and Yhonnie Scarce to do so in even more overt capacities. I conclude with a brief survey of other artists and institutions currently using art to rectify misrepresentations and address incomplete understandings of the Atomic Age past and present.