Durational Performance (April 13, 2018)
+ video documentation

live streamed images and text

›› Creator, Director, Performer ››

hosted by The Museum of Walking 

(Part of the series: Data Humanization Project)

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

At around 7:30pm on April 13, 2017 the US government dropped the Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb near the Moman Dara Village in the Asadkhel area in the Achin district of Nagarhar province in eastern Afghanistan. Nicknamed the "Mother of All Bombs" the weapon is the largest non-nuclear weapon in the US arsenal, with a blast radius (the area in which serious effects to people and structures can be felt) of a mile.

Though the MOAB was the largest weapon released, it was only one of 4.361 air weapons targeting Afghanistan during 2017 (according to US Air Forces Central Command declassified airpower summaries).

At 7:30am (PST) on April 13, 2018, the anniversary of this event, I walked an interior ring of the equivalent of the blast radius of this bomb on land in Arizona. This walk sought to memorialize the civilians who have been killed, the villages being terrorized, the populations in migration, and the lands being scarred as a result of the endless wars being carried out in our names.

Audience members could follow the performance with a live stream of text and images on Museum of Walking's social media accounts.

The Data Humanization series emerges from the field of data visualization and big data analytics, in which large and complex datasets are presented through visual effects that render them “readable.” In contrast to this trend, each of Jenik's 'data humanization' performances seek to physically “translate” a single datapoint so that it can be more fully comprehended by herself and others. Chosen data points are numbers that trouble or baffle the artist, and that she seeks to imprint within her body. She invites audiences to serve as witnesses and aids.