Preview - The Chernobyl Narrative: Paintings by Ben Williamson

I met Ben Williamson in the middle of the night. I dropped by a friend’s new apartment after a Habs’ game and a pitcher of beer, and the grand tour included a peek into his roommate Ben’s art studio. As such, I was able to get a glimpse of Ben Williamson’s startling Chernobyl Narrative series while the paint was still wet.

What I remember most about these paintings is how dark they are - ravaged landscapes populated with shady characters, rendered in strokes of paint that seem to absorb light altogether. Each canvas is chilling and many-layered, capturing the city, the tragedy, the aftermath and the mythology of Chernobyl.

“Why?” I asked Ben tipsily that night, “Why Chernobyl?” And he explained how, as a child, the 1986 disaster was the first event of a global scale to pierce his consciousness. It was a crisis that rippled through the collective memory of an entire generation, and coloured our perception of the tenuous relationship between humanity and technology.

Ben Williamson’s Chernobyl Narrative series will be on display in Zephyr Gallery (2112, Amherst) from April 3rd-19th. Get some wine with your nuclear fallout at the vernissage on Thursday, April 3rd, 5-8pm.

Read the press release in French.