Fallout Dogs

Julia Oldham (Portland, OR)

Opening Reception: January 25th, 6 pm - 9 pm
On View: January 25th - March 22nd

Gallery Guide

Making its debut in the Eastern United States at SPACES, 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 and the people who take care of them.

The Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster began on April 26, 1986, with an explosion in Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Power Plant. Over 100,000residents were evacuated on buses and told to leave everything behind. During the ensuing clean up effort,many of the abandoned petswere shot to prevent contamination. Some survived by making their way to the power plant, where workers and self-settlershave been caring for them and their descendants ever since.

While this video work unfolds from the perspective of dogs, it tells the story ofresilience in the face of human catastrophe and the mishandling of its fallout. What we decide we can leave behind is an indicator of our humanity or lack thereof; those who chose to intervene and place themselves in harm's way are the protagonists. Fallout Dogs gives us the opportunity to meet some of them.