It's very different from the normal interaction between art and science," muses Mel Chin, an artist at the University of Georgia, as he tries to explain "Revival Field"--is it an idea, an experiment, a living installation? "I see this as a sculptural project--the raw material just happens to be polluted earth instead of marble." Rufus L. Chaney of the department of agriculture, the other half of the collaboration, uses the term "phytoremediation" to define the concept. Their language may differ, but both men are pursuing the same goal: a simple, green technology for removing heavy metals from contaminated lands. It is a conceptually and economically appealing alternative to carting away the dirt--at a cost of at least $1 million per acre--and depositing it in a landfill.
About 15 years ago Chaney recognized that certain rare "hyperaccumulator" plant species incorporate such high concentrations of heavy metals that they could serve as natural soil cleansers. In the case of valuable metals, such as nickel, saturated plants can be dried and sold as ore. The notion attracted attention from the Environmental Protection Agency, "but then Reagan came into office, and we stopped that work," Chaney recalls.
Nevertheless, word of phytoremediation reached Chin, who was intrigued by the "poetic cycle" of using plants to undo the ill effects of the industry that had replaced them. In 1991, with Chaney's guidance, the artist designed a small plot of hyperaccumulator plants at a Superfund site outside St. Paul, Minn. The project completed its test run in 1993; the "Revival Field" in Palmerton, Pa., is still gathering data.
Clearly, "Revival Field" is not about landscape aesthetics. Chin considers phytoremediation itself as his artwork; "it is art as process and science as process," he says. Artists such as Robert Smithson create pieces in which they reshape the land, he elaborates. "'Revival Field' is a continuation of their ideas--it shows that the molecular transformation of the land is just as important." The deeply conceptual nature of the project has baffled some of his colleagues--and alienated certain patrons. In 1990 John E. Frohnmayer, then head of the National Endowment for the Arts, denied him an already approved $10,000 grant. Chin appealed and won.
Chaney recognizes a lot of effort yet to come: collecting hyperaccumulator species, cultivating test plots and establishing the viability of harvesting plants as ore. Although Chaney receives scant government funding, news about "Revival Field" has spread interest in phytoremediation--and completing the cycle and bringing the technique back into the scientific field.--Corey S. Powell
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN August 1995 Volume 273 Number 2 Page 36
Scientific American (ISSN 0036-8733), published monthly by Scientific American, Inc., 415 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017-1111. Copyright 1995 by Scientific American, Inc. All rights reserved. Except for one-time personal use, no part of any issue may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording, nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted or otherwise copied for public or private use without written permission of the publisher. For information regarding back issues, reprints or permissions, E-mail SCAinquiry@aol.com.
