Kiss_e-s

Kiss_....-...., 2010-13, plastic and nail paint

Inspired by a real collision in 2009  of two nuclear submarines (the Vanguard and the Triomphant) the series of kisses are couples of nuclear submarines attached face to face on a board with fishing threads. They can be exhibited in any position.

Related exhibitions: Neutralisation and Polymer_Milkshake

Kiss _Daquingyu-Los Angeles

* The Daquingyu (in turquoise) also known as Xia is the first Chinese sub-surface ballistic nuclear submarine class. Two of them were produced. One seems not operational and the other was reported lost during an accident.

* The American Los Angeles class submarine has forty-four submarines still active (more than any other nuclear powered class). Different improvements were made to this class. This model could be the SSN-724 that fired the first war shot of Desert Storm (on Iraq, 1991), SSN-722 that launched Tomahawk Land Attack Cruise Missiles against Afghanistan in 2001, the SSN-723 that collided with a gas tanker or the SSN-750 that collided with a Japanese tanker. It could be also the SSN-721, named Chicago (a nice city). Any way the model is just a piece of plastic (in light blue).

Kiss _Hiroshima-Seawolf

*The K-19 (in pink) was one of the first nuclear submarines equipped with nuclear ballistic missiles. Her worst incident was a major leak in her reactor coolant system (July 1961), which needed urgent reparation because of the uncontrollable high temperature of the reactor. Twenty-seven crew member died due to radiation exposure. Eight years later, K-19 collided with an American nuclear submarine. Three years later a fire kills twenty-eight sailors. Hiroshima became the nickname of the K-19. The submarine had to be scrapped in 2003, but vessel seems to be in the hands of a Russian businessman since 2006.

*The USS Seawolf (SSN-21, in gold green) is the lead ship of her class, which was limited to three vessels thanks to the “end” of the Cold War. The intended fleet of 12 submarines (29 at first) would have cost $33.6 billion. The seawolf (Anarhichas lupus) is also a fish with strong, prominent teeth and projecting tusks that are certainly not shaped for a kiss. The vessels are still in service.

Kiss _Delfin-Han

* The Delta IV class (known as Delfin (Dolphin) project (in silver)) is a sub-surface ballistic nuclear submarines class. In 1996, the test of launching the 16 missiles at once succeeded. In 1998, the same submarine was used to launch a rocket which delivered two German scientific micro-satellites to the space.

* The Han (in violet) class submarine is the first Chinese nuclear-powered class. They are known for having poor radiation shielding which causes health hazards for her crew.

Kiss _Dragon-Nevada

* The Dragon (in pink) is a Russian class Pike-B nuclear-powered attack submarine, newly renamed Samara. The Nerpa, submarine belonging to the third sub-class, had twenty people asphyxiated by an accidental activation of the Freon-based fire-extinguishing system during a sea trial in 2008.

* The sub-surface ballistic nuclear submarine USS Nevada (in orange) can be equipped with 24 Trident II missiles. She is one of the 14 Trident II SSBN sub- marines that carry together around fifty percent of the total U.S. strategic warhead inventory. In 2006, operating at periscope depth, she snagged and broke a towline between a tug and two barges.

Kiss _Kursk-Vanguard

* Kursk (in blue), Russian nuclear submarine probably victim of a collision with the American nuclear submarine Toledo; accident followed by a defensive torpedo of the USS Memphis (August 2000). The official version of the accident is an explosion of an old torpedo inside the submarine. The crew was sacrified to hide the secret of the incident. The wreck was brought back to Russia to retrieve the nuclear warheads and to protect the secret launching codes...

* HMS Vanguard (in green) , British nuclear submarine, victim of a collision with The Triomphant (French nuclear submarine), so silent that they seem not to detect each other. Both equipped with nuclear missiles (February 2009).

Kiss _Redoutable-Shark

* Le Redoutable (in red) is the first French sub-surface ballistic nuclear (SSBN) submarine. It was launched in Cherbourg in 1967 and returned to the same port to finish her days as a museum after the necessary transformations (mainly the extraction of the reactor). A part of the hull of a smaller submarine was transplanted at the place of the missing section.

* The Shark (in yellow) Russian class submarine (also known as Typhoon class) is the biggest submarine ever built (175 m). Here the model created in 1989 in a 1/400 scale has a strange protuberance at the nose, a kind of sonar that the American maker created out from an unknown source of information. At the time of the cold war not much was known about the adversary weapons. This design might be a testimony of these intriguing secrets. The plastic model of the fictitious Typhoon class submarine “Red October”, inspired by the movie “The Hunt for Red October”, carries also a strange sonar but on top of the upper rudder this time. The inaccuracy of the model might also be a marketing related decision of the maker.

@KCUA Gallery, Kyoto, 2013

photo: M. Whittle

Kiss _Borei-Triomphant

* Le Triomphant (in yellow) is the one that was involve in the collision with the Vanguard (British nuclear submarine) in 2009.

* The Borei (in green) is the new type of Russian nuclear submarine. A Borei submarine is able to launch a Bulava balistic missile from under the Arctic ice. The launch of these missiles are still on test.

The three additional set of 2013

Kiss _Yasen-Virginia

* The Russian Yasen class nuclear submarine (in violet) can cost between 1.6 and 3.5 billions dollars.

* On August 7 2014, a foreign submarine, presumably belonging to the US Navy’s Virginia class (in red), was detected in the Barents Sea by the alert forces of the Northern Fleet. The vigorous action of the anti-submarine forces of the Northern Fleet resulted in the submarine being forced out of the boundary waters of the Russian Federation. Price per unit between 1.4 and 2.7 billions dollars.

Kiss _Astute-Greeneville

*On October 22, 2010, the British HMS Astute ran aground on a sand bank off the coast of the Isle of Skye in Scotland.

* On 9 February 2001, while conducting an emergency main ballast tank blow off the coast of Oahu while hosting several civilian "distinguished visitors", the USS Greeneville struck the commercial Japanese fishing vessel Ehime Maru, causing the fishing boat to sink in less than ten minutes with the death of nine crew members, including four high school students