Black Carbon: The Invisible Threat Made Visible
Black Carbon: The Invisible Threat Made Visible
By: Amanda R. Luciano
When first researching the Entangled Air exhibition at Marquette’s Haggerty Museum, I was enthralled by the simple yet complex photos of white air on a black background. So when I visited the exhibit, I was under the impression it would be entirely comprised of photos; however, I was pleasantly surprised to find so much more than that in the small but impactful showing of artist Tomás Saraceno.
Argentine-born Saraceno is well known for his two decades of work helping to reshape how the world thinks about the atmosphere and environment we share with plants and animals. Located at Marquette University in Milwaukee, the exhibition was accompanied by scientific programming about air quality in the area and beyond. One of the first things I saw when entering the gallery space was a large written description of the project and its purpose to visualize and grow awareness for the fact that clean air is not a given for many on this planet. Humans have disproportionately polluted air quality and this fact can have devastating impacts on many populations of plants, animals and humans, especially those in impoverished areas of the globe. One of the main contributors to this trend is the production of what is known in scientific communities as black carbon or soot in common terms.
Saraceno visualized impacts in several ways in this exhibition. The featured photos, titled, “Printed Matter(s), The Dust Series 1” are a series of giclee prints made with ink derived from handmade paper and black carbon ink (extracted from the air in India, one of the most smog affected cities on the planet) were hauntingly beautiful. But more than that, they served to provide awareness of how industrialization and urbanization have long term harmful effects on the environment. While the photos were mesmerizing, opposite them in the gallery were several large framed works with rows of dots.
At first, I did not realize what the thin rows of paper with varying colors of gray, brown and black were, when reading the description I realized what they symbolized both literal and figurative form. Literally, they were physical representations of the particular matter in the air from a BAM machine (Beta Attenuation Mass Monitor). This piece of the installation was done in collaboration with researcher Harriet Washington as part of the “We Do Not All Breathe the Same Air” project that has traveled around the states since its inception in 2019. Part of the research findings include the idea that race, not class are the main determining factors on if someone has regular access to a clean air environment. Startlingly, they found that Black families that make $50-60,000 a year are significantly more affected by pollution and smog than white families making only $10,000 a year. I can only imagine how that number looks for Black and brown families that make much less than that. I would highly suggest checking out the short video discussion with Washington and Saraceno about the collection that you can find here.
Other parts of Entangled Air include a large infographic that describes how black carbon impacts the world as well as large inkjet photo prints of sculptures that deploy useful ways to harness and leverage black carbon as an alternative to fossil fuels. The show also includes both 2-D and 3-D representations of black carbon molecules that help bring the invisible problem to the forefront of the viewer's sight. And, finally, the data collected from Marquette’s accompanying program was also visualized in graph form. All of the pieces of the show contained ways to learn more about black carbon and its impacts on everyday life, which I really appreciated.
Upon leaving the show, I was filled with thoughts on my own impact on the environment and those we share it with. I was also reminded vividly of artist An-My Lê’s 2022 exhibition On Contested Terrain, not really in the sense of style, although her prints were of a similar color palette, but of the idea that the decisions of few, affect so many. An-My Lê’s photos included clouds and landscapes that depicted the devastating scars humans leave behind when going to war. Like black carbon, sometimes these scars and trauma to living species are sometimes invisible to the naked eye.
Tomás Saraceno is creatively brilliant in his work that incorporates both science and art. I would highly recommend giving this show a look, and hopefully take away more than just the simple beauty of it, but also the science behind it. Hopefully, we as a collective will continue to push for environmental change for the good of us humans and all the beautiful plants and animals that also need to breathe clean air.