Valentina and Danna
Julia Oldham: Fallout dogs
New Video by Julia Oldham
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 3, 2019 6 - 8pm
Exhibition Dates: January 3 - February 17, 2019
Portland ‘Pataphysical Society is pleased to announce Julia Oldham's return to the Portland 'Pataphysical Society with her new film, Fallout Dogs.
Premiering at the Portland Pataphysical Society, Julia Oldham’s Fallout Dogs is a cinematic portrait of Chernobyl guided by the movements and activities of the stray dogs that live in the exclusion zone. The Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster began on April 26, 1986, with an explosion in Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Power Plant. Over 100,000 residents were quickly evacuated on buses and told to leave everything behind, including their pets. While many of the abandoned pets were shot to prevent contamination, some survived by making their way to the power plant, where workers and self settlers have been caring for them and their descendants ever since.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Julia Oldham is an artist and storyteller who was raised by a physicist, a rock hound and a pack of dogs in rural Maryland. Born the same year as the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, Oldham has been consumed by scientific curiosity her entire life, and has sought through her work to understand the unknowable and transcend humanness. She blends digital media and drawing to tell stories that she finds both troubling and beautiful, ranging from the historical tale of Laika the Soviet Space Dog’s journey into orbit to science fiction visions of a post-apocalyptic future world populated by high-tech chihuahuas.
Oldham studied art history at St. Mary’s College of Maryland and then received her MFA from the University of Chicago. Her work has been screened/exhibited at Art in General, MoMA PS1, The Drawing Center, The Bronx Museum of Art, Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem; the Dia Foundation at the Hispanic Society in New York; and Nunnery Gallery in London, UK. Her work was included in the 2016 Portland Biennial, curated by Michelle Grabner.
More info here.