Most people were silent

In Most people were silent, fireworks explode, monochrome and sombre in a bright night sky.

The quote Some people laughed. Some people cried. Most people were silent was uttered by J. Robert Oppenheimer in the aftermath of the first nuclear tests. What we depict here are explosions of another kind – ones that are celebratory, yet not without a beautiful melancholy for our troubled times.

Most people were silent is a metaphor about the history of the Pacific, and ultimately it may also be about where we are at this moment – poised somewhere between the beauty of the sublime and the fear of the unknown.