Radioactive Art: Reprocessing Historical Incidents
Heavily censored at the time, the 1957 Windscale fire was, and is, the worst nuclear incident in the United Kingdom’s history. Known as The Windscale Fire piles, the fire was searing through Unit One of the two graphite-moderated reactors. The fire lasted for three days, releasing radioactive fallout across the UK and into Europe. This was a worry to the population as it was found that the spread of the radioactive isotope iodine-131 can lead to thyroid cancer. Decades on, this was followed by a huge radioactive leak in 2005.
In the same year I heard friend and poet Kevin Byrne perform his poem entitled ‘Kids With Yellow Heads’, a commentary on these major events.
Kids with Yellow Heads
I wondered only if the cloud
that floats on high o’er Meltdown Pile
could count the Cancers in the crowd
and Leukaemia in the child:
Cumbrian sheep in National Park
glowing softly in the dark.
Continuous as the blacked-out news
that silenced any airwaves vote
we stretched in never ending queues
to take our Tumours in the throat:
Ten Thousand saw I quite annoyed
to get a dancing Thyroid.
The sheep mutated well, but we
outdid twin-headed sheep in glee!
A poet can only be as free
in such Radioactive Company!
My Geiger Counter did not fail
our DNA shot off the scale.
For oft, when on a beach I lie
in Lakeland, or on Windscale lea
the Pumped-out Poison running by
Uranium set in a Caesium sea!
For Nuclear Power in National Grids
Plutonium mud pies for the kids.
Byrne told me recently:
‘The Windscale fire and pile meltdown in 1957 - renamed Sellafield as we know ... and ‘Kids with Yellow Heads’ obviously parallels ‘Daffodils’ by Wordsworth - re geographical nearness in Cumbria the poem has altered with bits and pieces over time - but of course keeps the 4 stanza form and iambic beat and largely the rhyme scheme.’
Byrne’s poem inspired me to craft an abstract oil-on-canvas which I completed in the same year.
I was always torn with this canvas and never really thought it captured the messages behind Byrne’s poem. So much so, last summer when I cleared our house, this canvas didn’t make the cut and ended up in a skip. All I have is a photograph as a memory. It was a difficult decision to make at the time, but with an accumulation of around three hundred paintings, it would either make the move with me or live a lifeless exhibition in storage.
However, seeing the photograph of this painting inspired me again. I was keen to research more about Sellafield 17 years down the line, and explore if there was any other art related to this. I started my research by first creating my own poetic response, titled ‘There’s Something Funny in the Air’.
There’s Something Funny in the Air
A fallout
on the beach;
kids use spades
and buckets;
create piles
of sand. Piles
caused by the
Scale of the wind.
Parents usher
them all home;
lock the windows;
tape up the
letterbox.
Kids ask for
a glass of milk.
Parents say
this is no longer
Possible,
something to do
with glowing cows.
‘There’s something
Funny in the air,’
the kids say.
Exhibition: Sellafield Thorp - The Art of Reprocessing
Continuing my research, I discovered an exhibition held in 2018 at the Beacon Museum, Whitehaven, called Sellafield Thorp - The Art of Reprocessing.
The exhibition marked a celebration of the end of Nuclear Power Reprocessing at the Thorp Plant, Sellafield. I delved deeper and viewed some of the artworks exhibited there.
One such search led me to the website of illustrator Katie Edwards. ‘The exhibition was put together by Forepoint’ Edwards states on her frontpage, ‘and I was asked to create a piece to illustrate the political debate that took place before Thorp was given the go ahead.’ [Edwards, 2018]. Her vivid montage of symbolic imagery draws attention to the political debate.
Katie Edwards covers a range of political issues in her illustrations. One such work explores the need for a carbon tax as she explains: ‘Recognition that a carbon tax is needed is rising in Congress (seven bills now) and in the U.S. presidential race. Worldwide, 23 countries or provinces have implemented them. Yet the rates vary wildly. How can economists set the right tax?’.
‘Energy Saving Light Bulb’ is a screen print which continues this idea that the public need to contribute towards saving our planet. It’s a succinct illustration: a green tree inside a lightbulb; a silhouetted figure resting under it.
In my workplace I am an avid promoter of a work life balance. This is distinctively captured in a screen print of the same title. A print commissioned to accompany an article in Briefings Magazine addresses challenges in the workplace.
Katie Edwards has an expansive client list including magazines and newspapers, advertising and agencies, just to name but a few. I conducted a quick interview with Katie to discover more about her contextualisation, process and journey as an artist with an extensive client base.
In Conversation with Katie Edwards
MB: How did you get involved in this exhibition and what aspects of the political debate do you capture in your illustration?
KE: I was invited to take part in the exhibition by the design agency Forepoint that were organising it. I was asked to focus on a ‘political’ themed collage which tells the story of the Windscale Inquiry. Showing that the plans for Thorp were both supported and opposed. There was a concerted effort from anti-nuclear campaigners to stop construction of Thorp and a concerted effort from trade unions and the community to get approval.
The 1977 Windscale Inquiry provided a comprehensive public airing of the views of scientists, engineers and technologists who supported the nuclear industry, and the views of the environmentalists who opposed it. Discussed issues included:
1. Should oxide fuel from thermal power reactors be reprocessed in Britain?
2. If so, should reprocessing be done at Windscale?
3. Should such a plant, if built, have the capacity to reprocess fuels from overseas?
The debate lasted 100 days, with evidence from dozens of witnesses both for and against reprocessing, and covering every aspect of the proposals - economic, social, environmental, technical and political.
MB: I’m interested in your personal artistic style - is this something which developed in your final exhibition at university? Did this exhibition include illustrations or screen prints?
KE: My final exhibition at University included framed illustrated screen prints and a screen printed book of Aesop Fables. My style of working developed in my final year of university and I have worked in a similar way ever since. I still use photographs to create my illustrations and screen print the final artwork. A slight development is more complex illustrations with many layers in a college style, with more use of background textures.
MB: What projects are you working on presently?
KE: I am currently working on more hotel artwork for Roomzzz Apartment Hotels, current cities are Nottingham, Chester and Edinburgh.
MB: I’m curious about how you’ve built such an extensive client list - was it a particular client which allowed you to do this?
KE: I don’t think I could name just one client, I’m sure each job I do helps acquire the next one. I think Roomzzz was the first client I started producing the college style illustrations for, which has led to further projects, in particular the ‘Art of Reprocessing’ brief.
This was a highly interesting interview with a talented artist I discovered by accident, purely by research and intrigue. It’s strange how major disastrous events can be captured by the arts in such a creative manner. This journey began from rediscovering poetry from the past, a canvas no longer in existence, research into the Windscale fire to an interview with a contemporary illustrator: art truly does take us all on creative radioactive journeys unmeasurable by any Geiger counter.
See more of Katie’s work here
Bibliography
Britannica (last edited 1 October 2021) Windscale Fire nuclear accident, Cumbria, United Kingdom, 1957 . Available at: https://www.britannica.com/event/Windscale-fire [Accessed 23 June 2022].
Brown, P. (2005). Huge radioactive leak closes Thorp nuclear plant. The Guardian, 9 May. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2005/may/09/environment.nuclearindustry
[Accessed 23 June 2022].
Forepoint (2018) The Art of Reprocessing. Available at: https://forepoint.co.uk/2018/11/the-art-of-reprocessing/ [Accessed 23 June 2022].
Katie Edwards Illustration (2020) Sellafield Thorp - The Art of Reprocessing. Available at: https://ktedwards.co.uk/#/sellafield-thorp-the-art-of-reprocessing/ [Accessed 23 June 2022].
Katie Edwards Illustration (2020) Available at: https://ktedwards.co.uk/ [Accessed 23 June 2022].
Radioactivity (2018) Windscale: an accident of the U.K. nuclear weapon program, 1957. Available at: https://www.radioactivity.eu.com/site/pages/Windscale_Accident.htm [Accessed 23 June 2022].
Whitehaven News (2018) Art exhibition to mark end of nuclear fuel reprocessing at Sellafield. Whitehaven News, 24 October 2018. Available at:
https://www.whitehavennews.co.uk/news/17104836.art-exhibition-mark-end-nuclear-fuel-reprocessing-sellafield/ [Accessed at 23 June 2022].
Wikipedia (last edited 19 June 2022) Windscale fire. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windscale_fire [Accessed 23 June 2022].
[All Images are from the Artist - Katie Edwards]
