The Tree of Dawn/Austras Koks series of artworks is a reading of radioactive contamination through the mythological image of the Sun Tree as found in the Latvian Dainas, an ancient form of poetry transmitted orally through songs. A process of translation of a formula describing radioactive decay guides a journey toward the realization of a participatory performance project, as a reinterpretation of the ancient myth.

 

The work follows the traces of the Sun-Tree in the dismantled nuclear missile base of Zeltini, a strategic secret Soviet base, and 9 lighthouses that have been rebuilt or re-adapted to function with radionuclide thermoelectric generators (RTGs), only recently dismantled. Considering the physical sun as itself a generator of natural radioactivity, the myth guides this process.

 

The artistic outcome is a series of video works and a participatory performance project that has been developed from a process of translation of a formula of radioactive decay.

 

Research towards this project was developed as a visual exposition for VIS, Nordic Journal for Artistic Research.

https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/1515878/1715473

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Video works:

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