CRITICAL MASS: PHOTOWORKS BY MERIDEL RUBENSTEIN

September 16 – December 3, 2023

FREE Artist Talk by Meridel Rubenstein
November 30th
Reception 6:30 pm | Artist Talk 7:00 pm

EXHIBITION SPONSORED BY ART FORCE

hree Missiles: Flight/Force, Four Elements, and Physics/Faith

Three Missiles: Flight/Force, Four Elements, and Physics/Faith, each approximately 83” x 30” composed of four palladium prints in shaped steel frames, each stamped with title, 84”x 12’ 1/1

The Manhattan Project

The Manhattan Project, 1993 9 19x23” palladium prints in steel grid frame 60x72” including Coke Bottle that Survived the First Atomic blast, Fatman with Edith, Oppenheimer and Grove plaster figures, the Square Dance Club 1 /1

Fatman with Edith and Tilano

Fatman with Edith and Tilano, 1993 19 x 23”Palladium print with steel frame, Ed 3/10 , 27 1/2 x 32 “

Edith’s House

Meridel Rubenstein, Edith’s House, 1993, Palladium print in custom stamped steel frame, 65 ½ x 62 ½ inches. Courtesy of Tia Collection, Santa Fe, NM

The term “Critical Mass” means the smallest amount of fissionable material that, when amassed, will sustain a self-supporting chain reaction. CRITICAL MASS was a collaborative photo/text/video installation that takes as its subject the worlds of scientists and Native Americans as they intersected at the home of Edith Warner during the making of the first atomic bomb in 1944 in Los Alamos, New Mexico.

In 1989, photographer Meridel Rubenstein and performance artist/poet-(now video artist), Ellen Zweig, received an NEA Inter-Arts grant to create the installation Critical Mass, with technical assistance by Steina and Woody Vasulka. The New Mexico Museum of Fine Arts gave institutional support for the exhibition that premiered in November 1993 in Santa Fe and then traveled for 3 years with stops including MIT's List Center, Cambridge; and the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago. Presented at AMoA are Meridel Rubenstein’s photoworks and the artists’ book, They Spoke to the Angels, with Ellen Zweig’s poetic text.

Most of the works presented in this exhibition are complex portraits: some of the people the artists came to only know through historical records; others they were privileged to meet and to photograph, which allowed them to record their memories of Edith Warner, the Manhattan Project, and the many ways their lives were affected by both.

Meridel Rubenstein maintains her art studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has been an active arts educator for over 30 years and is represented by Turner Carroll Gallery, Santa Fe.

Artist Talk sponsored by:

This program is supported by Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.