THE IRON RING
By Cecilia Jonsson (SE/NO)
The Iron Ring explores how contaminated mining grounds may benefit from the mining of metals. To create the exhibit, 24kg of iron-tainted grass was removed from contaminated mining grounds and transformed into a ring of metallic iron weighing 2g.
Iron is considered very important to life in general, and has a lower toxicity than other metals. However, extensive or abandoned metal mines and industrial activities have caused metal releases into the ecosystem to accelerate and reach toxic levels. So-called iron hyperaccumulating plants are tolerant to inorganic iron, and can grow on these degraded grounds. There they extract the metal from the soil to store it in very high concentrations. This means of ‘cleaning’ the polluted soil is a periodical commitment that relies on human interaction — the plants' metal-enriched biomass (in other words, their contaminated plant parts) need to be removed from the ground before they wilt and the extracted metal reverts back to the soil. After the harvest is removed, new sprouts can grow to continue the decontamination process.
The project elaborates on the possibilities of using the cleansing process of a naturalised, wild-growing grass called Imperata cylindrica. The result is a scenario for iron mining that, instead of furthering destruction, could actually contribute to the environmental rehabilitation of abandoned metal mines.
BIO
Cecilia is a visual artist whose research-based projects span installation, sculpture, sound, image and kinetic work. Over the past number of years, Cecilia has developed a larger series of works, with each project showing how much iron is part of interfering cycles of matter, fluids, life and meaning. As a result, she has researched many different ‘iron-loving’ species and how they are transformed by and transform mineral cycles as sculpting forces.
Cecilia holds an MFA from the Bergen Academy of Art and Design and the Nordic Sound Art program. In 2014, she was awarded a prize at the VIDA Art and Artificial Life International Awards for her project The Iron Ring. She conducted a 170m deep rock-drilling project for Dark Ecology 2016 and won the Bio Art and Design Award the same year. In 2017, she received an Honorary Mention in the Prix Ars Electronica Hybrid Art category. At present, she is a recipient of a five-year working grant from the Arts Council Norway.