Mineral Waste | Flood the Landscape | 2019
With her latest project Mineral Waste Dutch artist Marcha Schagen explores if it is possible to create CO₂-negative objects and sculptures, using the mineral olivine.
While processing raw materials mostly has the image of being polluting to the environment, olivine has the potential of purifying the atmosphere. This mineral, richly to be found in the Earth’s mantle, has the unique characteristic of being able to sequester CO₂.
In the natural process of weathering the mineral insulates CO₂ from the environment. It then alters the captured CO₂ into a magnesium bicarbonate solution, a residue that is not polluting. This natural process occurs relatively slow but can be accelerated by putting olivine in contact to water. With using not the olivine stone but it’s form as pulverized sand, the mineral’s reaction surface is being maximized and optimal used to insulate CO₂.
Flood the Landscape is an installation consisting the mineral olivine as pulverized sand in combination with 100% natural homemade glue to create solid shapes. When water floods into the installation the glue dissolves and the mineral’s reaction is being maximized to insulate CO₂. The water becomes a metaphor for the rising sea level.
