Half-life Oaks
Half-life Oaks depicts a hypothetical oak tree made with oil hoses as roots, sprouting into a glorious plastic tree, complete with polypropylene branches. Live-Oaks are one of the most iconic and oldest trees of the South with some dating back 900 years. Southeast Louisiana, especially New Orleans exists as an ecotourism economy, annually hosting thousands of tourists paying visits to the famous above-ground cemeteries and Oak tree groves. Aside from tourism, Louisiana economy is dominated by the petrochemical industry, hosting 4 of the 10 super-polluters of airborne toxicity in populated areas within Cancer Alley (the name given for the stretch of the lower Mississippi River corridor between Baton Rouge and New Orleans) and also a fifth in Lake Charles. A Live-Oak can only withstand up to two weeks with its roots submerged in water, and with a rising tide and disappearing coastline, our trees will also disappear, leaving behind only the relics of the petrochemical industry.
Half-life Oaks, 2022
Decommissioned Louisiana oil fuel hoses, polypropylene
168” x 240” x 60”