Critical Assembly is a sculpture

Sculpture

Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...

 by American artist Jim Sanborn which was displayed at the Corcoran Gallery of Art

Corcoran Gallery of Art

The Corcoran Gallery of Art is the largest privately supported cultural institution in Washington, DC. The museum's main focus is American art. The permanent collection includes works by Rembrandt, Eugène Delacroix, Edgar Degas, Thomas Gainsborough, John Singer Sargent, Claude Monet, Pablo...

 in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 in 2003. It included several elements, some actual and some re-created, which were part of the first project at Los Alamos

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Los Alamos National Laboratory is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory, managed and operated by Los Alamos National Security , located in Los Alamos, New Mexico...

 laboratories to design the first atomic bomb.

Sculpture

Critical Assembly was displayed at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in 2003 during an exhibit entitled "Atomic Time: Pure Science and Seduction." The main part of the sculpture is a three-dimensional representation of components of an atomic bomb. The artwork included a disassembled sphere that had been designed to hold the nuclear payload of plutonium

Plutonium

Plutonium is a transuranic radioactive chemical element with the chemical symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, forming a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four oxidation...

 and uranium

Uranium

Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...

. Sanborn purchased the blank sphere from prior lab employees who had bought them as surplus after the experiments of the project ceased.

The sculpture was surrounded by black cables which draped underneath eight tables holding different devices used in the research

Research

Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...

 and implementation of the first atomic bomb. The actual cabinet-sized detection equipment used at Los Alamos

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Los Alamos National Laboratory is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory, managed and operated by Los Alamos National Security , located in Los Alamos, New Mexico...

 were also on display. The sounds from geiger counters could be heard within the room, indicating low levels of radiation coming from four radium wrist watches. On the wall was a blue radium

Radium

Radium is a chemical element with atomic number 88, represented by the symbol Ra. Radium is an almost pure-white alkaline earth metal, but it readily oxidizes on exposure to air, becoming black in color. All isotopes of radium are highly radioactive, with the most stable isotope being radium-226,...

 clock dial that was frozen at 5:30 a.m., July 16, 1945, the time of the Trinity blast in Alamogordo, New Mexico

Alamogordo, New Mexico

Alamogordo is the county seat of Otero County and a city in south-central New Mexico, United States. A desert community lying in the Tularosa Basin, it is bordered on the east by the Sacramento Mountains. It is the nearest city to Holloman Air Force Base. The population was 35,582 as of the 2000...

. Sanborn himself was born in 1945, in Washington, D.C.

History

For a number of years preceding the unveiling of Critical Assembly, Sanborn made several trips to Los Alamos, New Mexico. This was the site where the Manhattan Project

Manhattan Project

The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...

 worked on the world's first atomic bomb. With the assistance of retired scientists, hobbyists, and collectors

Collecting

The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever items are of interest to the individual collector. Some collectors are generalists, accumulating merchandise, or stamps from all countries of the world...

, he was able to obtain actual lab equipment used in the atomic bomb's research. With this equipment he was able to piece together a "life-size re-creation of a hypothetical atomic lab."

Critical reception

Blake Gopnik from the Washington Post wrote that "Sanborn's installation brings us face to face, in the most immediate way imaginable, with what it means to make an atom bomb. That may turn out to be the most pressing issue our species will ever face." The Corcoran Gallery of Art curator

Curator

A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...

Jonathan Binstock called the artwork "a unique brew of historical accuracy and aesthetic license."