Curatorial Activism and Art Examples 10/14/2025 - Ishmael Adams

 

     Ishmael Adams 

    Professor Doris Cacoilo 

    Activist, Interlopers & Pranksters Fall 2025 

    10/14/2025 

 Curatorial Activism and Art Examples 

 

 

Part 1 - Curatorial Activism defined 

         Both The Atomic Cowboy: Daze After and Take it Home, (_) Shall Not Repeat The Error are examples of meaningful art gallery exhibitions that talk both about the history of the world, it's ongoing problems and what we can learn from it and use it's lessons today. Specifically, the aftereffects of the use of the Atomic Bomb after the tail end of the second World War. The Atomic Cowboy: Daze After discusses the aftereffects of the bomb testing of the Atomic Bomb in  the Nevada desert. Take it Home, (_) Shall Not Repeat The Error shows the rippling after effects of the bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima and how it affected it’s citizens and the country at large post war.  

In The Atomic Cowboy: Daze After exhibition there were a number of slides dictating the human cost of using the atomic bomb and how through the numerous amounts of testing, put a variety of lives at great risk, of which led to a great number of deaths. Showing not just the greedy nature of the rich and powerful, but also their blatant apathy to putting peoples lives at risk for their own goals. The Atomic Cowboy: Daze After sits as a reminder to know and remember the injustices of greed and the danger of not knowing history. As Kimberly Drew quotes Carter G. Woodson's writings in her book, This Is What I Know About Art  “If a race has no history, it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated.” When people don't know their history, it's easy to make it disappear, exactly why the people in charge of the nuke testing sites tried to do the not make the affects of the radiation poisoning known.

Take it Home, (_) Shall Not Repeat The Error exhibition shows the state of Japan after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the cultural impact it had on both the artist and the nations citizens. Nagasawa’s exhibition is a testament to remembering history in order to not only empathize for the victims, but also to remember not to repeat the mistakes of the past. In Dr. Maura Rielly’s article she writes, “In the end, instead of denying statistics, or ignoring the subject of gender, race and sexuality altogether, we all need to stop making excuses and to face these issues head-on in order to come up with solutions, possibilities, and strategies for addressing these inequities.” Through the remembrance of history through things like Nagasawa’s piece, people can discover both the horror and nuance that history has to offer and when we find the courage to look through that history, we as a people can forge a better tomorrow for future generations to come.     

Part 2 - Art Examples 

A Cowboy's Dream 

This work was created by Nobuho Nagasawa in an effort to shine awareness of the unjust deaths of these Hollywood stars, who unbeknownst to them contracted cancer from the desert winds that carried radiation from the nuke test site. Of which was known by the government that the winds carried radiation and neglected to tell anyone filming. I view this as an act of art activism due to  Nagasawa shining a light on the issue that the government tried to shy away from.  

I believe this piece is a form of art activism as it depicts the bombing of Japan. It shows the massive destructive scale of the bomb and the irreversible damage it brought, not only to Japan, but it's citizens as well.  

Sources

https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/what-is-curatorial-activism-9271/

https://bibliu.com/app/?bibliuMagicToken=gysE2d77dBp8CcdVDbOMurmSZ2zJK2ne#/view/books/9780593095461/epub/OEBPS/xhtml/10_Chapter.html#page_21

file:///C:/Users/owner/Downloads/The%20Atomic%20Cowboy%20The%20Daze%20After%20brochure%20edited%209.24.25.pdf

file:///C:/Users/owner/Downloads/Take%20It%20Home_Brochure-1.pdf