核武迷詩
Patrick Nagatani作品展
2013年8月24日至10月27日
香港獨立攝影展覽空間The Salt Yard將會在8月24日至10月20日期間，展出由美籍日裔藝術家Patrick Nagatani的作品《核武迷詩》（Nuclear Enchantment），是次展覽將會展出他由八十年代後期至九十年代初創作的三十張作品，皆是在香港作首次展出。
Patrick Nagantani 1945年生於美國芝加哥市，父親的祖家是日本廣島市郊一個務農家庭，Nagatani出生當日離美軍在那裡投下了原子彈的日子，僅僅相隔了十數天，這段沉重的歷史在往後的日子裡影響著他的創作路線。在八十年代後期，Nagatani移居至新墨西哥州城市阿布奎基（Albuquerque），為新墨西哥州大學教授攝影。新墨西哥州乃美國核武工業的誕生地，也是核原料鈾礦的產地之一，更有被核廢料污染的土地，因此啟發了他創作出《核武迷詩》這個作品系列。他開始搜集有關資料，包括走訪和拍攝進行過核武試驗的場地、發生過核事故的地點，和核廢料的棄置地點等。
Nagatani於七十年代曾在荷李活電影圈工作，為當時科幻電影的特效製作模型，他把這方面的經驗引用在自己的創作之中，來質疑大眾怎樣用圖像去塑造我們對歷史的概念。在沒有電腦技術或photoshop等軟件幫助下的年代，他用大型的景畫（tableaux）擺拍風格，配上微縮模型、繪畫佈景和等身大的剪紙人像，混合在真實演員當中，並在照片上添加了各種詭異的色彩，隱喻著核輻射的存在，從而轉化成一個個虛幻荒誕的場景。
《核武迷詩》帶出人類對核能或核武的矛盾心態，一方面對其心存恐懼，同時又膜拜核武的震懾力量。Nagatani也藉著作品裡自己族群或印第安土著的文化符號，去隱喻人類在科技上的進步同時，精神面貌上的窘乏。這系列猶如夢魘的畫面， 並未因時間的流逝而沖淡其警世的作用，在日本褔島核事故的陰霾下，又或是核武器仍是作為政治籌碼的今天，還是鏗鏘有力。
Patrick Nagatani簡歷
Patrick Nagatani 生於1945年，於1980年在加洲大學洛杉磯分校獲取藝術創作碩士，曾舉行無數的公衆講座及工作坊，其創作也在國際間廣泛展覽。
Nagatani醉心於影室擺拍或佈局攝影，題材從20X24英吋的寶麗萊作品以至其獨特的「光譜療法（ Chromatherapy）影像」，自1983年起他也成為一位"tapist"創作人（即以皺紋膠紙來作畫）。他現時正和其他作家編寫一部名為“The Race”的小說。在1984和1992年, 他獲美國藝術基金會（ National Endowment for the Arts）頒發的視覺藝術家獎學金。他也是攝影團體Atomic Photographer’s Guild的活躍成員。
Nagatani 曾獲取的獎項包括：The Aaron Siskind Foundation Individual Photographer's Fellowship、The Kraszna-Krausz Award、Leopold Godowsky Jr. Color Photography Award、Eliot Porter Fellowship in New Mexico 及由 National Art Education Association頒發的California Distinguished Artist Award等等。
他的回顧展暨作品結集《Desire for Magic – Patrick Nagatani 1978-2008》, 2010年在新墨西哥大學首度發表，其後也在洛杉磯的 Japanese American National Museum 和 Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences of West Virginia 展出。
於新墨西哥大學教導藝術及攝影達20年，Nagatani在2006年離開他藝術與藝術史系教授的崗位，正式退休。他於2017年10月27日於家中辭世，享年72歲。
Nuclear Enchantment by Patrick Nagatani
24 Aug, 2013 - 27 Oct, 2013
Between August 24 and October 20, The Salt Yard, an independent art space will showcase Japanese American artist Patrick Nagatani’s Nuclear Enchantment. Thirty works that Nagatani made in the late 1980s and early 1990s will be shown for the first time ever in Hong Kong.
Nagatani was born in Chicago in 1945, just a few weeks after the US army dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, where his grandfather’s family made their living as famers. The cataclysmic event resonates throughout his life and work.
In the late 1980s, Nagatani moved to Albuquerque, where he taught photography at the University of New Mexico. The region was the birthplace of nuclear weapons of the US, one of the uranium ore mines and with lands contaminated with nuclear waste. Nagatani was inspired and began researching the subject. He visited and photographed atomic testing sites locations of nuclear accidents and radioactive waste dumps that led to the creation of this photographic series Nuclear Enchantment.
Making use of his working experience in the Hollywood film industry in the 1970s, where he built special-effects models for science fiction films, Nagatani questioned the ways in which photography shaping the ideas of the general public about historical truth. Without using computer technology and the help of photo editing software, his photographic tableaux incorporated miniature scale models, life-size sculptures, painted sets and actors. He often applied various peculiar colors to his photographs, imbuing the work with a luminosity suggestive of radioactivity.
Nuclear Enchantment brought about the ambivalence of people about nuclear energy and nuclear weapons. On the one hand people are scared, on the other hand people worship the mightiness of nuclear weapons. Thought the use of cultural symbols of American Indian and his own ethnic group in his works, Nagatani implied the mental poverty of human amid technological advances. The vivid nightmare scenarios in this series are still alarming that their impacts have not faded away with time. As the Fukushima nuclear disaster looms over the world and nuclear weapon are still a political bargaining chip, these images remind powerful as ever.
Patrick Ryoichi Nagatani (1945 - 2017)
Patrick Nagatani earned his M.F.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1980. Nagatani has given numerous public lectures, seminars and workshops and his work has been exhibited widely both nationally and internationally.
Nagatani’s interest has been in studio set-ups and staged photographs from his Polaroid 20X24” work to his “Chromatherapy” images. He has also been a “tapist” (paints with masking tape) since 1983 to the present. Currently he is writing and editing with other writers a novel called “The Race”. He received National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artist Fellowships in 1984 and 1992. He is an active member of the Atomic Photographer’s Guild.
Some of his awards include: The Aaron Siskind Foundation Individual Photographer's Fellowship, The Kraszna-Krausz Award for his book Nuclear Enchantment, the Leopold Godowsky Jr. Color Photography Award, the Eliot Porter Fellowship in New Mexico, and the California Distinguished Artist Award from the National Art Education Association. He has served as a panelist for the the National Endowment for the Arts. He is an honored recipient of the "Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts” from Governor Bill Richardson in New Mexico as well as the Honored Educator Award from the Society of Photographic Education in 2008.
His survey show and book, Desire for Magic – Patrick Nagatani 1978-2008, premiered at the University of New Mexico traveled to the Japanese American National Museum in L.A. and was exhibited at the Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences of West Virginia.
He retired as a Professor from the Department of Art and Art History at UNM in 2006 after teaching art / photography there for 20 years.
Patrick Nagatani passed away on Oct. 27, 2017 at his home in Albuquerque. He was 72.
Personal website: www.patricknagatani.com