Julian Charrière (*1987) combines the environment with the histories of nature and culture in his works of art. His projects, which include performance, sculpture, and photography, often spring from field research done in remote regions with very pronounced geophysical identities.His most recent work, Second Suns, examines the post-nuclear landscapes and the architecture on the Bikini atoll, one of group of unpopulated islands that is still contaminated with radioactivity since the time that it was used for American atom bomb testing during the Cold War. The fascinating photos show ruined concrete bunkers, sunken warships, apocalyptic sunsets, and decaying infrastructure, offering the viewer access to notorious geographical zones shrouded in a fog of fantasy and tragedy. The title of our edition, Enyu I - Terminal Beach, refers to the eponymous 1964 sci-fi short story by J.G. Ballard. Grains of sand from the atoll’s still-radioactive beaches were placed on the negatives while they were developed, leaving behind their abstract, glowing traces on the picture. It is a destructive beauty that the “second sun” of the atomic radiation leaves behind on the landscape of this tropical paradise.
