KYDOIMOS: The Din of Battle

About

KYDOIMOS: The Din of Battle is comprised of more than 50,000 aerial photographs of Dugway Proving Ground, a classified military installation set in a remote portion of Utah’s Great Salt Lake Desert. The flickering images in KYDOIMOS depict test grids inscribed into the desert floor, where chemical and biological weapons and their facsimiles are detonated, turning this isolated landscape into a measuring device against which dispersal rates, toxicity levels, and threats to the human body are measured.  

Gaining access to the site required patience, persistence, and a government handler who accompanied the artist at all times. Maisel was further challenged by posted signs declaring that “Photography, or making notes, drawings, maps, or graphic representations of this area, or its activities, is prohibited unless specifically authorized by the Commander.” These limitations notwithstanding, Maisel was able to capture an abundance of images that collectively convey the scope and scale of the secretive activities at Dugway Proving Ground, while also acknowledging the ways in which they are abstracted and concealed.