Contest addresses Yucca controversy

Thursday, Jan. 31, 2002 | 8:33 a.m.

Recorded history began about 10,000 years ago. What will the world be like 10,000 years into the future?

For one thing, nuclear waste will still be stored at Yucca Mountain if Nevada is unable to derail a proposal that seems to be on a fast track to acceptance by Congress.

In an effort to highlight the issue, the nonprofit Desert Space Foundation of Las Vegas has conducted a national contest inviting artists to submit designs for a universal warning sign that theoretically would alert future generations to the dangers inherent in the storage proposal.

Joshua Abbey, director of the foundation, said more than 150 artists responded to the contest the most distant submission coming from Pakistan. A panel of eight judges, most of them professors and assistant professors at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, chose 60 of the submissions, which are on display at UNLV's Barrick Museum through March 9.

The winner of the contest was Ashok Sukumaran, a graduate student at UCLA's School of Architecture. He will receive $1,000 for his entry.

Abbey described Sukumaran's design as a genetically engineered, cobalt-blue Yucca cactus plant that will, theoretically, reproduce itself and eventually cover the entire Yucca Mountain ride -- one mutation guarding another.

Abbey came up with the idea to find a Yucca Mountain warning sign about a year ago.

"I wanted to find a vehicle that would allow the arts and design communities to address issues relevant to Yucca Mountain," Abbey said. "I felt this would be a good way to generate dialogue outside the state, and in particular in the key metropolitan areas that are facing the most risk by being along the central transportation corridors."

Abbey said the competition was heavily promoted in the Midwest, in such cities as St. Louis and Denver, but word also was spread in such cities as Sacramento and Los Angeles.

"I got the word out in major metropolitan areas where there will be multiple weekly shipments (of nuclear waste)," Abbey said. "The general populations in the areas are not fully aware of the degree of risks that will be imposed upon them."

Abbey said at the core of the contest is the need to alert people to the "legacy that we are leaving for future generations, and how they will have to contend with the long-term consequences."

The warnings came in a variety of media, Abbey said, including paints, sculptures, interactive DVDs and Web-based designs.

Abbey plans to have the exhibition tour key metropolitan areas that will be most affected by the Yucca Mountain project.

"We will use the exhibit as means of generating media attention and creating greater awareness about the issue," Abbey said. "We are at the point where it is very important for us to build awareness and solidarity, in opposition to the pending consequences of Yucca Mountain, outside our state.

"Any means that can capture people's imagination and motivate them to become more informed is advantageous to our position."

Libby Lumpkin, an author and assistant professor of art at UNLV, was one of the contest's judges.

"Joshua came up with a brilliant premise for the exhibition," Lumpkin, also an art historian and critic, said. "The premise, which was to design signs that would alert people to radioactivity for 10,000 years, highlights the absurdity of the problem with dealing with radioactive sites for such a long period of time."

She said the contest stressed the political and social problems involved in having radioactivity and not being able to dispose of it.

"The contest proposed a unique and interesting challenge to artists," Lumpkin said.

David Hickey, Lumpkin's husband, also was a judge.

"I think the contest was a good idea," said Hickey, also an acclaimed author and professor of art at UNLV, "but I think it's hard to be original in the face of total outrage. It doesn't leave you much room for creativity.

"In fact, in a project like this, the artist's only option really is some kind of irony."

Even with the limitations, Hickey said he thought some of the images created by the artists were very strong.

"This is an issue, a situation that is impervious to irony," Hickey said. "They are trying to put nuclear waste 100 miles from the fastest growing city in the country. We live in a tabloid culture in which people and places are punished for success."