Atomic Suite

2012

Atomic Suite encompasses a series of works that reflect on the subject of atomic and nuclear history, industry and culture. The works include large-scale projection, photography, site-specific installation and performative action.

Atomic Suite will be exhibited at the Art Gallery of Calgary, April 20 – August 25, 2012.

During artist residencies in 2010 and 2011 at the Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI) in Wendover, Utah, Kavanagh responded to the environment by engaging with locals, touring the region, and documenting key features and activities – including military training exercises at Wendover Airfield, and ordnance disposal at the Utah Test and Training Range. Through the course of the residency periods, she compiled a photographic and video archive while tracking her own movements each day.

http:// www.marykavanagh13.blogspot.com/

The Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI)

The Center operates facilities from several locations in the United States, including exhibit space and offices in Los Angeles, the Desert Research Station (DRS) in the Mojave Desert, the Houston Field Office, an office in Troy, New York, and an artist residence program in Wendover, Utah. The residence program is open to artists, researchers, theorists, or anyone who works innovatively with land and land use issues. Residents primarily work out of the CLUI facilities at Wendover, and explore and interpret the landscape of that geographic region, which includes the Great Salt Lake and its desert and salt-flat environs.

The artists' living quarters are uniquely situated on the historic WWII Wendover Airfield, the training site for over 20 bomber groups including the 509th Composite Group, the crew that dropped the atomic bombs on Japan in 1945. The Enola Gay hangar, built to house the Enola Gay and Bockscar B-29 Superfortresses, planes that were used to drop the bombs, is currently undergoing restoration after standing for decades in a state of benign neglect. From the front porch of the CLUI trailer, residents are greeted with a surreal, beach–like view – an austere expanse of salty mud flats, punctuated by distant munitions igloos, gunneries, airstrips, debris from Hollywood film sets, and, looming to the right, the overwhelming and beautifully patinaed Enola Gay hangar.

Today, Wendover Airfield is actively used by military training crews, private pilots, and commercial jetliners that bring gamblers into the casinos at nearby West Wendover, Nevada. Within short driving distance are the Bonneville Salt Flats, where land speed records were set throughout the last century; also nearby are iconic land art projects, like Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty and Nancy Holt's Sun Tunnels.

This hot, desolate outpost is situated in the midst of a vast industrial military complex near the Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR), the country's largest combined restricted land and airspace area, occupying 19,000 square miles of airspace with 2,675 square miles of ground space. Operated and maintained by the DoD's 388th Range Squadron, the UTTR provides responsive open-air training and test services that support large force training exercises, and large footprint weapons testing. On the range is Dugway Proving Ground which houses over 40% of the world's chemical and biological weapons. Explosives of over 10-kiloton yield can be detonated on the range, currently the only facility in the U.S. where such high yield ordnance disposal is permitted. Hundreds of rocket motors, most of which come from the Hercules facility in nearby Magna, are being disposed of according to START treaty agreements.

http://www.clui.org/

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Wendover Airport, Wendover UT

2010-11

Wendover Air Force Base is a former United States Air Base in Utah now known as Wendover Airport. During World War II it was a training base for B-17 and B-24 bomber crews. It was the training site of the 509th Composite Group, the B-29 unit which dropped the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs. In 2009, a hangar at the base dubbed "The Manhattan Project's Enola Gay Hangar" was listed as one of the most endangered historic sites in the U.S.

After the war, Wendover was used for training exercises, gunnery practice and as a research facility. It was closed by the Air Force in 1969, and the base was given to Wendover City in 1977. Tooele County assumed ownership of the airport and base buildings in 1998, and the County continues to operate the airfield as a public airport. A portion of the original bombing range is now the Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR) which is used extensively by the Air Force with live fire targets on the range.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendover_Air_Force_Base
http://www.techbastard.com/afb/ut/wendover.php

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Bomb Pits, Wendover Airport, Wendover UT

2010-11

A special ordnance Test Unit assembled inert bombs or "shapes" which were dropped by B-29s to furnish information on ballistics, electrical fusing and detonators, release mechanisms, and flying characteristics of the aircraft. Pits were constructed with hydraulic lifts to hoist the huge bombs into the bomb bay and between October 1944 and August 1945, 155 test units were dropped. "Fat Man" tests were performed at Salton Sea Naval Air Station Range, California, and the "Little Boy" was tested on Wendover Range. A high explosive (HE) filled "Fat Man" was tested at Wendover on 4 August 1945 completing the tests.

http://www.onlineutah.com/wendoverairfieldhistory.shtml
http://www.techbastard.com/afb/ut/wendover.php

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Enola Gay Hangar, Exterior, Wendover Airport, Wendover UT

2010-11

The Enola Gay Hangar housed the Enola Gay and Bockscar B-29 Superfortress planes during the 1944-45 training of the 509th Composite Bomber Group at Wendover Airforce Base. The planes were part of a secret mission during which crewmembers trained to drop the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, just prior to the end of World War II. The hangar is now in the process of being restored with plans for it to eventually function as a public museum.

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Enola Gay Hangar, Interior, Wendover Airport, Wendover UT

2010-11

The Enola Gay Hangar housed the Enola Gay and Bockscar B-29 Superfortress planes during the 1944-45 training of the 509th Composite Bomber Group at Wendover Airforce Base. The planes were part of a secret mission during which crewmembers trained to drop the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, just prior to the end of World War II. The hangar is now in the process of being restored with plans for it to eventually function as a public museum.

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South Base Munitions Igloos, Wendover Airport, Wendover UT

2010-11

'Igloos' built during WWII to store high explosive munitions, sit untouched since the 1940s on the mud flats of the Great Salt Basin. Most are now rented by nearby Wendover casinos for records storage. Wendover Air Force Base is a former United States Air Base in Utah now known as Wendover Airport. During World War II it was a training base for B-17 and B-24 bomber crews. It was the training site of the 509th Composite Group, the B-29 unit which dropped the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs. In 2009, a hangar at the base dubbed "The Manhattan Project's Enola Gay Hangar" was listed as one of the most endangered historic sites in the U.S.

After the war, Wendover was used for training exercises, gunnery practice and as a research facility. It was closed by the Air Force in 1969, and the base was given to Wendover City in 1977. Tooele County assumed ownership of the airport and base buildings in 1998, and the County continues to operate the airfield as a public airport. A portion of the original bombing range is now the Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR) which is used extensively by the Air Force with live fire targets on the range.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendover_Air_Force_Base
http://www.techbastard.com/afb/ut/wendover.php

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Minuteman I Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, Rocket Motor – C4 Detonation
Utah Test and Training Range, North Range, Utah

2010

Minuteman I is a solid-propellant, rocket-powered Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) built between 1958 and 1972. It was deactivated in 1972 when the United States Air Force began its modernization process to the Minuteman II and III. Hundreds of rocket motors, the Minute Man included, are still being disposed of each week according to START treaty agreements.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_Test_and_Training_Range

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South Base, Wendover Airport, Wendover UT

2010-11

Wendover Air Force Base is a former United States Air Base in Utah now known as Wendover Airport. During World War II it was a training base for B-17 and B-24 bomber crews. It was the training site of the 509th Composite Group, the B-29 unit which dropped the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs. In 2009, a hangar at the base dubbed "The Manhattan Project's Enola Gay Hangar" was listed as one of the most endangered historic sites in the U.S.

After the war, Wendover was used for training exercises, gunnery range and as a research facility. It was closed by the Air Force in 1969, and the base was given to Wendover City in 1977. Tooele County assumed ownership of the airport and base buildings in 1998, and the County continues to operate the airfield as a public airport. A portion of the original bombing range is now the Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR) which is used extensively by the Air Force with live fire targets on the range.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendover_Air_Force_Base
http://www.onlineutah.com/wendoverairfieldhistory.shtml
http://www.techbastard.com/afb/ut/wendover.php

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Gunneries, Wendover Airport, Wendover UT

2010-11

On March 1, 1942 the Army Air Force activated Wendover Air Base and also assigned the research and development of guided missiles, pilotless aircraft, and remotely-controlled bombs to the site. The new base was supplied and serviced by the Ogden Air Depot at Hill Field. In April the Air Corps activated the Wendover Sub-Depot for technical and administrative control of the field, under the immediate command of the Ogden Air Depot. The Wendover Sub-Depot was tasked to requisition, store, and issue all Army Air Forces property for organizations stationed at Wendover Field for training.

Various machine gun ranges allowed gunners to either fire at moving targets from stationary gun emplacements or fire at stationary targets from three machine guns mounted on a railroad car moving along a section of track at up to 40 miles per hour (Wendover's famous "Tokyo Trolley"). Wendover's realistic challenges for aerial gunners and bombardiers caused them to become the best trained in the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendover_Air_Force_Base
http://www.onlineutah.com/wendoverairfieldhistory.shtml
http://www.techbastard.com/afb/ut/wendover.php