Fukushima 3

In 1979 the renowned manga artist Shigeru Mizuki  (*1922, he designed a Hitler biography in 1971)

produced a set of illustrations on the harsh working conditions at the Fukushima power plant (The reality of subcontract workers). The infos came from Kunio Hori, and the material was published by Asahi Graph (http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201206090008). Replicas were exposed 2012 at the Maruki gallery for the Hiroshima panels (http://www.aya.or.jp/~marukimsn):

Radiation protection suits now termed NBC (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical) suit or bunny suit, are well known since the various contamination episodes with nuclear materials, earlier episodes due to gas warfare, and more recently to biohazards from natural or synthetic infectives. They are included in various games, just that people get used to them as early as possible (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_suit).

  A special type is the space outfit, the astronaut, here in a 1962 silkscreen by the Berlin artist Werner Mühlbrecht (*1930), looking determined for actions in a space lab or going to the moon, a sort of hero. Werner taught me drawing in space. 

 Now think of the hundreds and thousands of workers involved in moving contaminated materials as in Chernobyl, Fukushima, Los Alamos and all the sites on earth remaining contaminated. See here some recent pics from the Fukushima site used for the lino.

The plant and the counter have been omitted for a more universal approach.

The drawing shows that reflections in the helmet’s glass and the contours are the main elements. 

In the colour reduction a question has been the face underneath the reflections. Two variants have been tried, either with or without background colour. Both seem possible.

The contour plate has been inked with a gradient.

 

 Printing on a second colour provides the opportunity to indicate structures related to particles again related to contamination.