First Aid Boxes
10 sculptural works, to illustrate each of the ten current methods of Carbon Removal
First Aid Boxes is a 3D installation by London-based artist Kate Daudy.
Daudy has created a series of magical 3D boxes that unpack from the floor of the social club to show miniature, artistic and playful renderings of carbon removal techniques. You are encouraged to visit the social club to interact with and explore these to build a greater understanding of the processes involved.
Biomass burial
The stratigraphic columns can be seen in colourful cross sections with a perfect band of glossy carbon locked inside a vault. The piece illustrates matter recycled and returned to source, with carbon locked out of danger beneath bands of earth.
Bio oil
Bio oil is made of excess organic matter, which is turned into a carbon-rich oil, and pumped back into the hole from which oil has been extracted. We have illustrated this with a 3d jigsaw of interlocking forms, locked together to form in a hand drawn landscape, based on stratigraphic columns. This box becomes a sculptural geological map, which people can play
with.
Enhanced weathering
This is a small and resolved piece made of mixed materials. The heart of the piece is a thin limestone slab, representing the surface of the earth. The stone has been “weathered” with acid, and etched with an image of Calcium Carbonate, which is what pulls carbon out of the air.
Concrete injection
We cast lego bricks out of liquid carbon injected concrete. People can build things with them inside the boxes, and play.
bio char
This is represented by a mass of burnt wooden arrows in every direction and height. Bio char is created by burning down organic material into a material that looks like micro shards of charcoal. This material, bio char, secures carbon and also helps to make things grow. The cycles of wooden arrows that are burned illustrate how Bio Char facilitates new growth from carbon capture and soil regeneration.
reforestation
A sombre base of burned hardwood creates the setting of a desolate “scorched earth” landscape. Into this are drilled a grid of holes, into which a constellation of bold, abstract, turned aluminium trees can be placed in any combination. This is a playful piece. Each tree is unique, with a polished bronze trunk and powder coated puff of leaves. When placed in the ground, the trees overlap at different heights in different tones of green. As the trees fill the char-blackened landscape, we witness the rebirth of a newly reforested landscape.
soil carbon regenerative agriculture
Minimal and bold, a beautiful zen garden of sand features inside this birch plywood box. There are even miniature rakes and gardening tools, which people can play with. This represents regenerative agriculture which, by introducing the
concept of no more ploughing and no more tilling of the land, keeps the carbon from escaping into the atmosphere
kelp farming
Translucent slide with authentic, locally sourced kelp fused in to resin. Laid out so that its beautiful natural shapes can be admired. Resembling a scientific slide you look at through a microscope the slide is backlit with 12 volt LED lights.
Direct air capture
This is a box divided into four parts by two filters. The whole is crossed by a pair of brightly lit arrows swooping and
diving, to represent air. In the middle section here is a fan. The first filter is yellow, representing the first process of carbon removal. A blue filter next, illustrating the next process of carbon removal.
soil amendment
An increasingly compact lacework of roots spread interlocking across the interior of the box. The marbles represent the air and water that can exist tranquilly without the intervention of machinery disturbance, thus keeping the carbon out of the atmosphere.
