Billboard-sized memorial in Ottawa honors Chornobyl's fallen firefighters

by Christopher Guly

OTTAWA - From now until Novem-ber 17, downtown Ottawa is the setting for a billboard-sized memorial to six firefighters who died during the April 1986 accident at the Chornobyl nuclear power station.

Created by Ukrainian British artist Stefan Gec, the exhibit features 15-by-9-foot photographs of the firefighters. It is located on the lawn of the Arts Court building across from the city's Rideau Center shopping complex.

Using a computer-enlarging process, London-based Mr. Gec transformed identification-sized mugshots of the firefighters, which appeared in a Soviet newspaper, into a larger-than-life tribute to the heroism associated with the Chornobyl disaster.

Each $2,000 ($1,439 U.S.) print, called a scanachrome, was produced after Mr. Gec took photographs of the newspaper shots. The resulting new transparencies were computer-enhanced to their huge proportions and printed on waterproof vinyl. Ottawa's SAW Gallery is presenting the exhibit.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, October 20, 1996, No. 42, Vol. LXIV

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