I created a concept proposal for the decommissioned nuclear testing site at Yucca Flat, Nevada Test Site. It is an adaptation of The Evolution of Silence and a composite of many of my drawings; submitted to the 2021 “The Last Nuclear Bomb Memorial Project.”

Drawing, digital collage, archival ink jet print, 16.54 x 23.39 inches (A2), 2021 ©Rachele Riley

My proposal—is not a careful site, not singular, not clean—it is emotional, entangled, absurd, unfathomable, a path of perspective. I combined several drawings to render a complicated expressive path—one that could provide access around the Yucca Flat terrain, not only to visit detonation sites but also to give presence to the in-between spaces around them—so to acknowledge the damage that is visible and invisible. From the competition brief: “We support the call for a ban on nuclear weapons. In response to the global silence surrounding the issue of nuclear weapons, designs must be submitted with no description text. Ideas must be communicated strictly with visuals.”