WWII Gas Mask (USS Saratoga – found object)

Discovered inside the wreck of the USS Saratoga, this M3 diaphragm gas mask was gathered by the artist during a month of fieldwork on Bikini Atoll in 2016—part of the research and production for First Light and Iroojrilik series. Suspended in the depths since 1946, the object has slowly merged with its surroundings: rusted, reefed, and overtaken by marine life.

Once designed to allow the wearer to continue breathing during chemical warfare, the mask was never worn. Instead, it became an accidental reliquary—sealed in a submarine archive of the atomic age. The Saratoga, scuttled during Operation Crossroads, was sacrificed to study nuclear blast effects. Its destruction marked a pivot in history: from conventional war to the era of radiological spectacle.

The atoll itself, once inhabited, remains largely unlivable—an irradiated paradise-turned-proving ground. This object, fragile and metamorphosed, speaks not only of military ambition, but of ecological succession and submerged time. It stands as a threshold between protection and exposure, a relic of the nuclear arms race.