Semipalatinsk Wish Tree
Project year: 2021
Status: competition project
Soft: 3ds Max, Adobe Photoshop, AutoCAD
Description: This work was performed as part of The Last Nuclear Memorial competition by BeeBreeders. According to the rules of the competition, it was not allowed to make any inscriptions on the panel (it was necessary to explain the whole idea only with images), the place of the memorial could also be chosen on its own. My choice fell on the Semipalatinsk test site - the first and one of the largest test sites in the former USSR.
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At the initial stage of the project, the sketches depicted the idea of playing with shadow and light (the shadow of an object resembling a nuclear mushroom is thrown into a floor of an underground memorial) - but later it was decided to replace it with a monument illuminated by a powerful spotlight.
The idea was based on the image of the Wish Tree, the external outlines of which also resemble a mushroom from the explosion of nuclear warheads - thus, the project combines these 2 images in memory of the terrible past of the Semipalatinsk test site and the bright present and future without testing nuclear weapons.
The memorial complex is located near the Kurchatov city (this is a city in Russia near the test site). It is assumed that tourists are taken in small groups on buses to the memorial site, where at first, they can see the huge endless steppes of the test site.
Then they go down the stairs to an underground dark memorial. In the 1st hall (reception) there is still natural lighting, which seeps into the room through light wells.
Then people go to a long dark corridor, where several projectors work - they tell about the whole story of the Semipalatinsk test site, about the terrible radioactive pollution of this area and about people who have been affected by radiation.
In the last hall, when a person goes out on the balcony, he sees a statue of a boy below, illuminated by a bright beam. The statue symbolizes hope for a peaceful future without nuclear tests.
I suggest that the visitors of this complex should not just be caretakers, but perform a ritual - draw or write their wish on a sign which they can find in the bag of the statue and hang it on the iron wish tree located at the exit from the memorial complex.
The origins of the very idea of the project go to the Japanese ema - small wooden plaques in which Shinto and Buddhist worshippers write prayers or wishes. After filling, ema is hung in the sanctuary so that the gods can receive the messages addressed to them.
Since it was impossible to write anything on the panel, I’ve decided to draw a comic story. It ends with a picture showing a close-up of the signs with wishes that were hung by the visitors of the memorial - they wish for world peace, love and friendship.
THANK YOU FOR WATCHING !
