Marshall Islands' nuclear past and precarious future explored in London exhibition

LONDON – A group of artists is shining a light on the impact of climate change, rising sea levels and nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands after travelling to the remote Pacific nation as part of an expedition.

The “Kõmij Mour Ijin/Our Life is Here” exhibition at London’s National Maritime Museum features paintings, sculptures, photos and video installations exploring the nation’s dark history and the threat facing its inhabitants.

Led by Cape Farewell, a cultural art and climate project founded by artist David Buckland, a team of artists, writers, scientists and filmmakers set sail to the Marshall Islands in 2023.

They visited various atolls, including Bikini, where the U.S. carried out nuclear bomb tests from 1946 to 1958, such as “Castle Bravo” in 1954 – the largest U.S. bomb ever detonated.

“‘Our Life is Here’… refers to them. It’s how they could construct their life in among the terrible history and the potential future,” Buckland told Reuters.

“The atolls are six feet above sea water, that doesn’t take much of the Pacific Ocean to rise, to actually make them uninhabitable. So that threat is hanging over them.”

On show at the exhibition, which opened in late November and runs until June, are works exploring the threat of rising flood waters as well as photographs of Marshall Islanders both by international and local artists.

Home to around 40,000 people, the Marshall Islands is one of the countries most vulnerable to rising sea levels, which are projected to put 96% of the capital Majuro, at risk of frequent flooding, according to a 2021 World Bank study.

Last year was among the planet’s three warmest on record, the World Meteorological Organization said earlier this month, as EU scientists also confirmed average temperatures have now exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming for the longest since records began.