David Blandy

Child of the Atom, 2010

Video & installation

Manga Artwork: Inko
Camera: Claire Barrett
Voiceover: Rachel Piper

With thanks to Tomoko Nishizaki of Hiroshima Film Commission

Installation View at Seventeen Gallery, London of 'Child of the Atom', David Blandy, 2010
Dimensions Variable, Single Channel Video

'There is a familial myth that my late Grandfather would not have survived being a Japanese Prisoner of War had the atomic bombing of Hiroshima not occurred. So it could be argued that I owe my existence to one of the most terrifying events of human history and the death of 110,000 people.'
- David Blandy

This family lore regarding David Blandy's grandfather, held as a POW in Singapore and Taiwan from 1942, provided the genesis of Blandy's solo exhibition, Child of the Atom. Generated by an underlying guilt about his own and also his daughter's existence, Blandy's film documents their visit to Hiroshima to literally and symbolically search for their 'origins'.

The installation in the main gallery space displayed artifacts, ephemera, novels, comics and toys that examine some of the manifestations of the bombings in global popular culture. The installation was comprised of an amalgam of images found in the film, the entry area was be furnished with tourist information and maps, with an amateur museum dedicated to A-bomb related memorabilia. This library of references was dotted with Child of the Atom merchandise, including an arcade stick, where the Seimitsu clear bubble joystick doubles as a mushroom-cloud hovering over a map of Hiroshima, positing Blandy's constructed character as a fiction amongst other pre-existing narratives.

This artwork has been realized with the generous support of the Daiwa Foundation and Arts Council England

An Interview with Nick Currie for Vdrome, December 2017