LAMENTATIONS: THINKING THE UNTHINKABLE

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Granite and stainless steel
56 x 12 ¼ x 12 ¼ in | 142 x 31 x 31 cm
2016

The foundation of conventional belief that nuclear warfare is “unthinkable” has been the notion that the inevitability of an unmitigated catastrophe is its own deterrent. Brian Dailey questions the wisdom of this belief in his sculpture Thinking the Unthinkable. The work pivots around a rectangular granite column, forcing the viewer to read the artist’s haiku-like construct:

THINKING
THE UNTHINKABLE
IS UNTHINKNABLE
MAKES IT THINKABLE

Sitting atop the plinth is an imposing orb symbolic of the “pit” or “demon pit,” the primary nuclear “trigger” used in the design of the modern-day hydrogen bomb.