At the end of our trip in July I couldn't have imagined being back so soon. But, we're picking up the thread again and making a short intentional trip to New Mexico next weekend. The centerpiece of the voyage will be the annual open house for Trinity, the site of the world's first nuclear detonation. This is where on July 16, 1945 at 5:29 a.m. the world entered the "atomic era". A pivot point in global history. What was unleashed that summer morning in/upon/through this particular stretch of New Mexican desert, and in turn the world, continues to shape the reality of 2009.
A year ago, on the same weekend that we will be at Trinity this year, we were in Reno for the Art + Environment conference. We were about to tour the Nevada Test Site for the first time. It was at the A + E conference that we met Geoff Manaugh. Now, one year later, we are happily included in his Landscapes of Quarantine project in New York. Much has been learned and gathered in this past year.
Next weekend will undoubtedly be a time of reflection about where we have arrived in 365 days. It will offer a context for connecting the myriad of spaces and times that encompass this particular year's experiences and makings. It will be a continuation of a process and practice underway as well as another stepping off point into the next. If visiting Trinity is similar to the other nuclear sites that we have been to thus far the experience of being there will cause everything outside of this place to temporarily fall away. An internal upheaval will return as this place's very particular reality and totality becomes real-ly lived and felt.
A relationship with this landscape has been building over the course of the last three years. Our attendance at the "open house" will only deepen this. We will be crossing through gates typically closed, passing through once again, and slipping momentarily into a space and time inaccessible in daily life.
I'll be making another postcard for Freeman Dyson from the site and we'll be taking photos to be included in our upcoming exhibition in Red Hook. We'll also be gathering last bits of imagery for our newsprint, Worlds To Come: A Field Guide, which will be published en masse in November.
In the days between now and next Saturday I'll be thinking about ways to come to this site in the present tense, despite all that I have read and imagined about it up to this point. Though Robert J. Oppenheimer's much quoted words will be resonating in my mind, I'd like to come to this place as clear as possible. What might this place offer us in the midst work that we are intently making? How will the ceremonial "opening" this site (to the public) get taken up by us?
Regardless of outcomes, it will be magical to connect, once again, with the endlessly mysterious and ever enchanting landscapes of New Mexico.
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