Video Exhibition: Kōmij Mour Ijin / Our Life Is Here

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Worth Ryder Art Gallery and the VIDRINE present four artists' video responses to nuclear history, colonialism, and climate change in the Pacific, made in the wake of the Kōmij Mour Ijin / Our Life Is Here voyage. In Anointed, poet and Marshall Islands Climate Envoy Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner stands on Runit Dome at Enewetak Atoll, the concrete cap the United States built over radioactive debris from its nuclear tests, and speaks to radioactive racism and the long quest for peace and justice. The video was directed by Dan Lin and produced by Pacific Resources for Education and Learning. Michael Light's BRAVO, ECHO 1954–2023 returns to the site of the Castle Bravo nuclear test, tracing its mark on the landscape across nearly seventy years. In Mammoth, Michael Pinsky carries a mammoth tooth from England's eroding Norfolk coast to the Castle Bravo crater at Bikini Atoll, linking the mammoth's climate-driven extinction to today's rising seas. David Buckland's videos of his Bikini Texts projected into and on the waves inside the Bikini Atoll. The words projected, including 'Our Life is Here,' all reflect on the Marshallese culture, the traumatic nuclear explosions detonated on Bikini and the rising sea levels.Featured Artworks: Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner — AnointedMichael Light — BRAVO, ECHO 1954–2023Michael Pinsky — MammothDavid Buckland �� Bikini TextsAbout Kōmij Mour Ijin / Our Life Is Here at UC Berkeley (http://ourlifeishere.org)In 2023, thirty international artists, writers, scientists, and filmmakers traveled 450 nautical miles across the Marshall Islands with Marshallese youth and elders. This expedition—organized by Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner, Michael Light, and David Buckland, with support from Stellar Blue Fund and Cape Farewell—was not one to witness ruin, but a return: an act of honoring ancestral lands, the struggles of those who came before, and the enduring presence of Marshallese life today. Throughout 2026–27, the project runs across campus in exhibitions at Doe Library, Giannini Hall, Memorial Glade, Worth Ryder, and BAMPFA, along with courses and public programs. It culminates in an exhibition of original works at the David Brower Center, September 2027 – February 2028. ourlifeishere.org (https://art.berkeley.edu/ourlifeishere.org)About Worth Ryder Art Gallery / VIDRINE (https://art.berkeley.edu/gallery)The Worth Ryder Art Gallery (WRAG) is an educational art space that has served as a cultural and artistic resource and community center for undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, alumni, and the Bay Area community since 1960, and is a central social and artistic hub of the UC Berkeley Department of Art Practice. The gallery supports students in exhibiting their artwork in a professional gallery context, serves as an exhibition platform for emerging contemporary artistic strategies, and brings challenging and thought-provoking artwork to the UC Berkeley campus. It is named after painter and founding chair of the department, Worth Ryder. VIDRINE is Worth Ryder Art Gallery's ancillary space showcasing video, digital art, and installation. It is located around the corner from the Worth Ryder Art Gallery in the lobby of the Anthropology and Art Building.