
Gold plantation
Łukasz Prus-Niewiadomski
June 15th – July 1st 2018
Palm House of the Botanical Garden in Łódź, al. Piłsudskiego 62
Accompanying event of Fotofestiwal 2018
“Gold Plantation” is an artistic project inspired by research on Australian eucalyptus conducted by the team of doctor Mel Lintern, geochemist from the government agency CSIRO. It was found that these plants take from the depths of the earth water with metal particles. Because gold can be toxic, eucalyptus carries it through branches to the leaves that it throws to the ground. When the leaf decomposes, the whole process can be repeated. Gold particles in the leaves are invisible to the naked eye, but can be localized by researchers with use of specialized equipment, which can become a new method of looking for deposits of this metal. This method will be much less invasive to the ecosystem than the currently used test wells – until the decision will be made to start an industrial extraction…