"We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, »Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.« I suppose we all thought that, one way or another."
Julius Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967)
Trinity I
2012, Öl auf Holz
Inspired by photos taken by Harold Edgerton, who captured the first billionths of a second of the world's first atomic bomb test (Manhattan Project) on 16 July 1945 at 05:29:45 in the New Mexico desert from a distance of 7 miles (approx. 11.85 km). The bomb was detonated on a 30.5 metre high steel tower at the White Sands Missile Range in the US state of New Mexico and had a diameter of about 1.5 metres. Within the first millisecond, the explosion penetrated to the outside. The shock wave could be felt 160 kilometres away and the mushroom cloud typical of nuclear bombs reached 12 kilometres in height. The explosion left a crater 3 metres deep and 330 metres wide.
The explosion was so bright and overwhelming that the bomb's inventor J. Robert Oppenheimer gave it the name "Trinity" - in reference to a poem by the mystic John Donne , HOLY SONNET N° 14 "Batter my heart, three-person'd God[...]".
HOLY SONNET XIV
Batter my heart, three-person'd God, for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend ;
That I may rise, and stand,
o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp'd town,
to another due,
Labour to admit you, but O, to no end.
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betroth'd unto your enemy ;
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me,
for I, Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
Source:
HOLY SONNETs, Donne, John. Poems of John Donne. vol I. E. K. Chambers, ed. London: Lawrence & Bullen, 1896. 165.
Inspiriert durch Fotos von Harold Edgerton, der am 16. Juli 1945 um 05:29:45 in der Wüste von New Mexico aus einer Entfernung von 7 Meilen (ca. 11,85 km) die ersten Milliardstelsekunden des ersten Atombombentests der Welt (Manhattan Project) festhielt. Die Bombe wurde auf einem 30,5 Meter hohen stählernen Turm in der White Sands Missile Range im US-Bundesstaat New Mexico gezündet und hatte einen Durchmesser von ca 1,5m. Schon innerhalb der ersten Millisekunde drang die Explosion nach außen. Die Druckwelle war 160 Kilometer weit zu spüren und die atombombentypische Pilzwolke erreichte 12 Kilometer Höhe. Die Explosion hinterließ einen 3 Meter tiefen und 330 Meter breiten Krater.
Die Explosion war so hell und überwältigend, daß der Erfinder der Bombe J. Robert Oppenheimer ihr den Namen „Trinity“ gab – in Anlehnung an ein Gedicht des Mystikers John Donne , HOLY SONNET N° 14 „Batter my heart, three-person'd God[...]“
TRINITY II
2012, Öl auf Holz
