Raccoons on the Diagram of Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant. 2021/2024
Oil on canvas, 162.56 x 227.3
Commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation

Recalling both industrial diagrams and pre-modern representations of myths, Akira Ikezoe’s works satirise the attempts to ‘civilise’ forces outside human control. Ikezoe moved to New York from his native Japan a few months prior to the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The ensuing debate about the necessity of nuclear energy and its economic inevitability spurred Ikezoe to begin his ‘Coconut Heads’ series: a group of diagrammatic paintings depicting animal protagonists and human figures engaged in unscientific beliefs and rituals. This exhibition includes four paintings, representing nuclear calamity, commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation. Bears on the Diagram of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant; Monkeys on the Diagram of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant; and Raccoons on the Diagram of Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant (all 2021/2024) imagine the lead up to three infamous nuclear accidents. A fourth painting, Toads on the Diagram of Nuclear Fuel Cycle (2021/2024), illustrates the extractive actions of the nuclear fuel cycle. Against dark backgrounds, personified animals, including monkeys, bears and toads, cluster around nuclear power plant elements such as turbines and reactors to suggest an endless loop of irrational actions.
(Text by Wendy Vogel. © Sharjah Art Foundation)