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Yellow Cake

Titled "Yellow Cake" based on four nuclear events since 1945.

Yellowcake came to the world's attention as the Bush administration's justification for the invasion of Iraq. The reference to yellowcake was derived from falsified classified documents initially from Niger disclosed by Italian intelligence to the United Kingdom. These documents depict an attempt by the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq to purchase yellowcake uranium from Nigeria during the Iraq disarmament crisis. In the end, no Yellowcake existed.

1) Nuclear explosion July 16, 1945
The centerpiece of the sculpture is a large yellow tank reminiscent of the shape of the first nuclear device exploded at the Alamogordo test site in New Mexico. The title of this test was "Trinity".

2) Hiroshima August 6, 1945 and Nagasaki Japan August 9. 1945
The four airplanes landing gears represent the two B-29 bombers "Enola Gay" that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima and "Bock's Car" that dropped its bomb on Nagasaki. Each is located at the ends of two intersecting aluminum I beams forming an X which references a target point X on a map.

3) Cuban Missile Crisis October 15th - 28th 1962
579 hemp ropes are each representational of a13/1 ratio of nuclear warheads ready for launch respectively in the Soviet Union and in the United States in October 1962. These hemp ropes tipped in a black tar also pictorials the first use of gunpowder fuses.

4) United States invasion of Iraq March 20, 2003
Yellow Cakes (also called urania) are uranium concentrates obtained from leach solutions, representing an intermediate step in the processing of uranium ores.