Made of salvaged oak, Carbon Sinks are sculptures designed to be sunk into bodies of water to sequester their carbon.

These sculptures are fabricated using timber framing techniques, as an expression of a human-made response to the human caused problem of global heating. My thought is that they reflect our efforts in some way. We could simply sink whole trees into the quarry, but I mean this work to be a symbolic offering that reflects our footprint as humans. Unfortunately, our buildings reflect an entire mindset and way of being that has put the Earth in jeopardy. I mean to use a similar vocabulary to speak to people about the climate change – such a massive problem – on a distinctly human scale.

My wish is to reduce the abstraction of our climate issues by making physical representations of amounts of carbon, with the hope that they will both demonstrate the scale of the problem and make that problem more knowable and concrete. The title of each sculpture refers to the amount of carbon held in the object and it’s carbon dioxide equivalent. Red Oak was chosen for its relatively high carbon content, and porous grain. The surface is charred to assist in the preservation of the wood underwater. Currently, I am using wood salvaged from nearby my home following the devastation of Hurricane Helene.

With this project, I aim to call attention to the solutions we have to address the climate crisis, and to engage our collective imaginations. We must be radically optimistic, and also not shy away from employing partial solutions.

The full-scale pieces are celebrated with a Carbon Sink Potluck, before being sunk to low-oxygen environments to sit undisturbed, holding their carbon for millennia. By gathering in celebration, we galvanize the connections of community to continue working to reduce our carbon emissions and face the climate changes we already face.