FODOMOSAICS

“First the colors. Then the humans.”

This is a line from the novel The Book Thief wherein the narrator, Death, distracts himself from the repetitive job of collecting bodies with aesthetic wonderment and describing the color of the sky.

“First the colors.” is a queen-size sixty-pound woven glass blanket based upon a 1952 Atomic Energy Commission photograph of a nuclear detonation sixty miles northwest of Las Vegas, one of 1,032 known to have occurred within US soil and water. Shockingly, these blasts did not cease until the 1990’s and following international pressure. Mid-century, they were publicly scheduled and privately capitalized upon for profit, promoted for their entertainment value as an alternative to the casinos. Tourists unwittingly gambled with far more than their money.

Moreover, “First the colors.” symbolizes an array of manmade creations and conflicts which threaten life and limb, consisting of spiritual violence against every living organism.

The blanket’s border design is an amalgam drawing upon southwest native tribal elements and the upward and outward directional forces which create a “mushroom cloud”.
“First the colors.” is made of more than a quarter million 4mm matte glass beads in nine colors … 258,736 to be precise.
Glass bead masks accompany the blanket, made with the same degree of bodily protection afforded tourists, soldiers, and scientists during mid-century nuclear blasts with nothing more than darkened goggles.