Materials: A4 digital prints, 3D printed ceramic crystals, workshop table, series of A2 drawings in hematite, malachite, graphite and magnetite paint, large scale drawing in iron oxide paints and graphite.

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Shown at: Hunt Museum Ireland, as part of Night's Candles are Burnt Out

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How to harness the Wind is an installation of minerals, featuring 3D printed crystals, drawings and the raw materials required to make a wind turbine. It includes a series of ceramic crystals depicting copper, gold, hematite, boracite, malachite and most importantly monazite, the mineral processed for rare earth elements. These ceramic crystals are messy, 3D printed with liquid clay in Limerick City, each processed into the elements needed to generate electricity from the wind. But as that ‘clean’ energy powers our phones, homes and technology, how does the connection with earth, ground, rock and clay become lost. How does the slimy material at the bottom of the Shannon, the darkness of mines and the risks and violations posed to many miners across the Global South intersect with the EU’s Green New Deal? Our technologies are made possible through the mining of raw materials, processed from rocks and crystals, across the globe. From the earth comes precious graphite, gold, lithium and raw earth elements to name a few, making batteries efficient, allowing electric currents to flow, infrastructure to be built and paints, glass and our food to be made. As global resources become depleted and the very minerals needed for batteries, wind turbines and tidal energy become stressed, how might our re-engagement with the minerals in the Shannon Basin help us reconsider our energy consumption?

 

How to harness the Wind includes a guide showing you how to make you own ceramic crystals, engaging with your local fabrication spaces, the clay that might sit at the back of your garden and the wealth of online support. I look forwards to seeing what you make.

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This work is funded by the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon and Limerick City and County Council funding.

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The research undertaken was part of the Earth, water, sky residency and commissioning program taking place in TU Berlin, is a part of the Earth, Water, Sky research, commissioning, production and exhibition residency curated by Ariane Koek, supported by the Science Gallery International Network and fully funded by Fondation Didier et Martine Primat.