Fall 2019

The prompt of this project was to represent an event through a place setting at a table. I chose the occupation of the Hambach forest - an event in which activists built and lived in treehouses to defend the last few acres of forest from the Hambach lignite coal mining operation ongoing in Northern Germany. 

In my research, I unexpectedly came to find that Lignite coal is one of the most toxic pollutants - with debris in the air, and toxins in the material itself. It is considered one of dirtiest forms of coal. Yet, it is used to make fertilizer for food. So the paper plates are made with articles talking about the health dangers of lignite (with the irony that we grow our food in it), and the plate is lifted like a treehouse - also symbolizing our reliance on forests.