Decorated Utility Box: Fukushima - Pittsfield, MA

Fukushima

Pittsfield, MA

N 42° 26.858 W 073° 15.266

Short Description: 

A painted utility box commissioned by the Pittsfield Artscape Committee is located at the west side of South Street, south of Park Square in Pittsfield, MA.

Long Description:

The City of Pittsfield Artscape Committee has chosen the eight designs that are now painted on utility boxes throughout the downtown area. All he boxes were painted July 9th and 16th 2016 and were unveiled on July 21, 2016 during the Third Thursday street fair.

The decorated facade of the Fukushima Daiichi Reactor Unit 1 in Fukushima, Japan is reproduced on this decorated utility box by Marcel Bove. Puffy white clouds rise in a blue sky rise and coalesce into a single larger cloud at the top. The lower right side of the front and the back is inscribed:

FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI REACTOR UNIT 1 
DESIGNED AND BUILT BY GENERAL ELECTRIC
MARCEL BOVA 2016 

General Electric was once the major employer in Pittsfield. When they left Pittsfield it devastated the economy and left the nearby Housatonic River severely and probably permanently polluted with PCB's. The Fukushima Daiichi Reactor Unit 1, famously melted down and released radiation into the air after the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011.

Name of Artist: Marcel Bova

Title of the Art: Fukushima

Year Decorated: 2016