Nadav Kander began a three year survey of secret Soviet scientific cities and missile test sites when he learned of the existence of two “closed” cities on the border between Kazakhstan and Russia that tickled his curiosity for secrecy and his interest in the aesthetics of destruction. This fascination then took him from East Kazakhstan to the desolated landscapes of the Aral Sea.
Levelled to preserve their military secrets, the areas now consist predominantly of the ruinous architecture and desolate landscapes featured in Kander’s fascinating and hauntingly beautiful photographs. The result of the Cold War and of the relentless quest for nuclear armaments, the ruins stand as accidental monuments to the melancholic, dark and destructive side of human nature.
Fascinated by the area’s past and driven by discovery, Kander’s photographs portray stark fact and bleak setting with a characteristic poeticism. Secrets seem to seep from the silence of the crumbling monuments, bowing under heavy grey skies. Describing what he saw as ‘empty landscapes of invisible dangers’ Kander’s images evoke his sense of awe and fear as he responded to these places and to the weight of their history.
EXHIBITIONS
Dust, Nadav Kander
. September 9 – October 11, 2014
Flowers gallery,
London, UK
. November 27, 2014 -January 4, 2015
Torch gallery,
Amsterdam, Netherlands
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/nadav-kander-dust/id916254442?mt=8
http://www.hatjecantz.de/nadav-kander-6192-1.html
