Hannah Chalew | Prospect 6
Climate Impact Report
Hannah chalew 'orphan well gamma garden'
prospect 6
2 Nov 2024 – 2 feb 2025 
Image: Jonathan Traviesa | Caption for above and details below: Hannah Chalew, 2024; Metal, sugarcane, disposable plastic waste, lime, recycled paint, paper made from sugarcane combined with shredded disposable plastic waste ("plasticane"), ink made from persimmon, goldenrod, indigo, copper and oak galls, pumps, irrigation tubing, diffuser, "fertile rot" scent, living plants, soil, and water
Essay by Risa Puleo:
Hannah Chalew’s Orphan Well Gamma Garden (OWGG) is a prophetic warning, a materialized vision for a speculative future where ecologies reengineer remnants of the petrochemical industry into conduits for life beyond humans. For her installation, Chalew salvaged an oil wellhead—a machine part that once propelled the extraction of fossil fuels from the wetlands of New Orleans—from a junkyard. At the Contemporary Art Center, this wellhead has been repurposed as a fountain that supports living plants, as well as sculpted ones made from materials that speak to the longer histories of the wetlands’ exploitation.
The New Orleans-based artist and master naturalist looks to the wetlands because climate change’s causes and effects are most visibly entangled there. Oil wells populate the Mississippi River Delta, intermingling with cypress trees in swamps and churning beneath the Gulf Stream. Dredging accelerates erosion in these delicate landscapes, while refining emits greenhouse gases that contribute to the intensity and frequency of hurricanes. In Chalew’s vision for the afterlife of infrastructure, wetland plants embrace their anatomical resemblance to refinery pipes by overtaking and merging with defunct, industrially scaled equipment. Entwined, the formal rhyme between the networks of pipes and root systems of trees suggests mutation.
The title of Chalew’s installation points to two particular phenomena that plague Louisiana’s wetlands. First, when no longer financially viable, wells are abandoned instead of dismantled. The wellhead at the center of Chalew’s installation is one such orphaned object. Often, abandoned equipment left in the environment leaches toxins. When the toxins are radioactive, the wetlands become unofficial gamma gardens, the second phenomenon to which Chalew’s title refers. These atomic-era experiments irradiated plants in order to produce mutations that benefit humans, such as larger, sweeter fruit with longer shelf lives and more abundant crops. In Chalew’s post-human gamma garden, the wetland plants mutate to enhance their resilience against the historical conditions of exploitation by humans.
The development of Louisiana’s wetlands began in the 19th century, when the burgeoning petrochemical industry deemed wetlands to be wastelands. The exploitation of the environment was concurrent with the exploitation of people. Over time, sugarcane plantations became petrochemical refineries. To show how Louisiana’s dual legacies of enslavement and extraction extend into our present, Chalew intervenes in the papermaking process with history-laden materials. The constructed plants in her installation are crafted from “plasticane,” a material Chalew engineers by mixing shredded plastic with bagasse, the fibrous remains left after the sweetness is extruded from sugarcane. The smell of sugar lingers around Orphan Well Gamma Garden: The artist-created fragrance, Fertile Rot, introduces the sweet, fermented scent of oakmoss that conjures the decay of a swamp’s off-gassing. Combined with the subtle sound of hissing that suggests a methane leak, the artist works to update our perceptions of nature with sensory information about the wetlands’ exploitation.
Chalew’s zero-waste and fossil fuel-free philosophy extends beyond sourcing materials from salvage yards. Orphan Well Gamma Garden is powered by a reciprocal community carbon offset project called Maktub Forêt, a restoration effort in the coastal wetland forest near the Mississippi River’s mouth. The living plants in her installation will find a home there after the exhibition closes. Chalew also finds car-free ways to travel and refuses to participate in “artwashing,” the dispersion of money into art institutions that offer oil and gas companies tax breaks and accolades. From the plantation to the refinery to the museum, Chalew’s investigations of the ecological and economic footprint of the petrochemical industry ask us to consider what remains as society increasingly moves away from fossil fuels.
Image: Jonathan Traviesa
Artist Climate Statement:
We are living in the so-called age of the Anthropocene—the geological epoch marked by humans’ effect on our planet—and where I live, in Louisiana, the oil and gas industry is a major part of the state’s economy and culture, despite our ever more vulnerable coastline. I make work that connects fossil fuel extraction and plastic production to their roots in the white supremacy and capitalism that have fueled the exploitation of people and the landscape from the times of colonization and enslavement. In creating OWGG, I wanted to draw attention to the looming threat of carbon capture—a false panacea being sold to Louisiana as a way to allow the fossil fuel industry to continue doing business as usual—and this largely unproven technology’s dangerous connection to the thousands of orphan wells in the state.
To connect my message with my medium, I divest my studio practice from fossil fuels as much as possible by choosing recycled, free, and sustainable materials; powering my artworks and studio practice with renewable resources like solar power and rainwater; traveling by bike to and from my studio; and not accepting fossil-fuel funding for my work. By working this way, I offer a slower, more intentional paradigm of engaging with our surroundings as an antidote to the short-sighted extractive consumption that has gotten us to this precarious moment. This philosophy was a major guiding force as I conceptualized and built OWGG. I sourced and chose materials with sustainability in mind whenever possible. Most of the materials were already used: I got them from scrap yards, secondhand stores, the streets, or donations from friends. As I was building the installation, I realized that in addition to raising awareness of carbon capture and orphan wells as issues pertinent to a place on the bleeding edge of both the causes and effects of anthropogenic climate change, the work was also an opportunity to bring attention to the pernicious effects of art-washing by fossil fuel companies. I added the words "Helis Oil + Gas” to the oil-wellheads-cum-fountains in my work as a direct critique of the Helis Foundation, a major funder of P.6 and most of New Orleans major arts institutions. The Helis Foundation is a private foundation in New Orleans. In 2023, its assets were valued at approximately $86M1. As its website states, its Arts Fund was established by family members of William G. Helis, who founded what is now known as Helis Oil and Gas Co2. Helis Oil and Gas Co. is a privately owned oil and gas company whose President is also the President of the Helis Foundation(THF)3. Today Helis Oil + Gas no longer operates wells in Louisiana but maintains fossil-fuel infrastructure in Texas, Montana and North Dakota4, while the Helis Foundation uses philanthropy to distract from the company’s environmental impact, rather than taking accountability and using its assets to mitigate the effects on climate change.Through its continued investment in fossil-fuel extraction Helis Oil + Gas is actively making the future of New Orleans more precarious, while THF, which operates out of the same address and shares the same President and Vice President, funds the arts. For many years, I have spoken publicly about my concerns about THF’s role in the arts ecosystems, and beyond, of Southern Louisiana. Before agreeing to participate in Prospect 6, the triennial Artistic Directors promised that my work would not be censored by THF and later that my commission would not be funded by THF. As I was conceptualizing my P.6 installation, it became clear that it needed to address the critical issues at stake in Southern Louisiana as we sit here on the bleeding edge of both the causes and effects of anthropogenic climate change. One such critical issue is the artwashing practice of THF, which arguably uses philanthropy to distract from its environmental impact rather than take accountability for it. As I was building OWGG I realized that the pumps powering the fountains would need to run continuously for the duration of the exhibition, and I began thinking of ways to offset these emissions. I first thought about powering the work with solar power, but after consulting with Kirsty Robertson from the Center for Sustainable Curating, I decided to pursue a reciprocal carbon offset project with my friends, Jacqueline Richard and Richie Blink, and the land they are stewarding downriver, Maktub Forêt. These 10.5 acres of land were used for cattle grazing before being abandoned after Hurricane Katrina. Richard and Blink are restoring this acreage to a coastal forest of cypress trees. This climate impact report is an important component of OWGG. It shows how I calculated the carbon emissions generated by the installation and then how I determined the number of cypress trees that needed to be planted at Maktub Forêt as an offset. ___________________________2https://www.thehelisfoundation.org/about
3https://www.neworleanschamber.org/list/member/helis-oil-gas-company-llc-398
4https://www.shalexp.com/helis-oil-gas-company-l-l-c
Image: Jonathan Traviesa
Emissions + Waste:
Materials:
I tried to choose already used materials whenever possible. When choosing materials that had to be “virgin,” I favored those that could be reused like steel. Most materials were sourced locally in line with my studio philosophy of sustainability. For those few items that had to be ordered online, I ordered “open-box” products off Ebay whenever possible.
All the pipes and valves in the installation were sourced from a scrap yard or salvaged from the wetlands. They all can be resold and recycled at the scrap yard after my installation is deconstructed.
I sourced used paint from the Green Project, a building material reuse store; I used paints in sculptural forms and on paper that I handmade. I returned paints to the Green Project that I did not use.
I created my own paper for most of the paper-mâché and for all the plants fashioned from paper. All the paper-mâché elements had at least one base layer of recycled brown paper. I solicited brown paper bag donations through my Instagram page and was able to collect used bags from friends and followers across the city.
I used native aquatic plants for the living plants in my work. Most of these plants cannot be found at local nurseries, so I sourced them from coastal restoration organizations that grow these plants for coastal rebuilding projects. I was “loaned” cypress trees and Spartina grass from the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana (CRCL), and I obtained bulrush from Common Ground Relief for a small donation. I also borrowed 10 iris plants from the Louisiana Iris Conservation Initiative, which rescues irises from sites that are going to be developed and then replants them as part of restoration projects. I sourced the pickerel weed and duckpotato plants from public right of ways (ditches) in St. Bernard Parish. I also included non-native elephant ear and banana tree plants sourced from my backyard in the installation.
I used pond colorant to dye the water to make it reflect the installation, hide the infrastructure on the bottom of the tank, and add an “ick” factor to the work. The pond colorant is an enzyme and will biodegrade.
Reuse:
The welded armatures can be reused once the paper is stripped off. I will reuse my handmade paper.
The electronic components (pumps, diffuser) and the vinyl tubing in the plumbing can be reused.
The plastic waste has been diverted from the landfill but will continue to degrade even in my sculptures.
I will reuse the sculptural island elements.
All of the pipes, valves, and other metal elements (welded armatures, tanks) can be recycled at the scrap yard.
Landfill:
Most of the elements of my installation that will end up in the landfill are related to its installation and packing:
plastic sheeting used for laying out the installation footprint (this was a time-constrained choice)
blue tape for labeling how elements are connected
bubble wrap: will try to reuse it for the next move
glassine: will try to reuse but once blue tape is applied, it is hard to salvage
The paper-mâché structures masking the tanks were coated in polycrylic to waterproof them, so this material can no longer be recycled and will go to the landfill. However, once these structures are torn off the steel armatures, those elements can be reused or recycled.
Image: Jonathan Traviesa
Total Materials Emissions Calculated Using Gallery Climate Coalition Calculator = 1.37 tons
Production:
Cutting: Makita 18V battery
54 W x 5 hours/1000= .27 kwH
Grinding: Makita 18V battery
54 W x 5 hours/1000= .27 kwH
Welding -
Lincoln 140 Weldpak Mig Welder
~1400 watts
Wattage x Hours Used Per Day) / 1000 = Daily kWh
1400 x 25 hours/ 1000= 35 kWH
Papermaking-
Hollander Beater
¾ HP = 551 W
551 W x 4 hours/ 1000= 2.2 kWh
*Water Usage from papermaking= throughout the process ~100 gallons of water
Total Emissions from Productions= 37.74 kwH = .022 tons5
Transportation/Shipping:
No flights or nonlocal travel occurred during the creation of this exhibition.
The whole installation fit into one 20’ truck ~ 2000 lbs. The trip is 3 miles from my studio to exhibition space, my calculations used a formula drawn from here
In addition, there was one cargo van full of plants, ~500 lbs, same distance.
I made about six car trips to the exhibition space during the installation process but mostly traveled by e-bike. When I met people at the installation I traveled by bike whenever possible.
Total emissions from shipping the work roundtrip= .002 tCO2e (took freight emissions and doubled it to factor in the cargo van and car trips)
Energy Usage of Exhibition:
Wattage of Electronics:
Wattage x Hours Used Per Day) / 1000 = Daily kWh
Diffuser
15 Watts
6 hours/day, 3 days a week= .09 x 3days= .27 x 12 weeks=
3.254 kwH for run of exhibition
Pumps
2 x 52 watts
Running 24 hours/day
52 x 24=1.24 x 84 days=
208 kwH for run of exhibition
Lights
9 x 75 watt bulbs
24 hours a day
1361 kwH for run of exhibition
Total Emissions from Exhibition electricity (not including A/C): 1572 kwh = .917 tons
___________________________
5 Used this website for these calculations:
https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator
Water Usage:
6” in 6’ diameter= 105 gallons
6” in 4’ diameter=47 gallons
Refilled once/month, 3x per exhibition
608 gallons for run of exhibition
Diffuser:
1000 mL water X 12
3 gallons for run of exhibition
Water usage from installation + production = 711 gallons/ 244956= .003 metric tons6
Emissions total from Materials + Production + Shipping + Energy Use of Installation + Water Use= 2.3 tons, rounded up to 2.5 tons to account for any calculating inaccuracies
___________________________
6 I used this website for my water calculation:
https://leansixsigmaenvironment.org/index.php/how-much-impact-does-one-gallon-of-water-in-your-home-or-business-have-on-the-environment/
Image: Halle Parker
Sequestration:
The emissions from my materials + production + exhibition + shipping = 2.5 tons of carbon (5,000 lb).7
If the trees had linear growth over time, there should be a growth of 1.37 kg CO2e/yr. With the help of volunteers, we were able to plant 110 cypress trees.
110 x 1.37 = 150.7 kg CO2e/yr for the 110 seedlings. 2,500 kg / 150.7 = 16.6 years to sequester the 2.5 tons of emissions from this installation.
Supporting People:
I worked with two assistants, BIPOC and female respectively, who each worked about eight hours a week for the 4 months leading up to the exhibition opening. I paid the assistants $20/hour, a humble amount but one that is considered a living wage8 (for an adult with no children) in New Orleans. I always paid them at the end of each workday, which was very important to me. I also rounded up their hours, gave them ample breaks, the ability to choose their tasks, and the freedom to work independently.
Collective Action:
In addition to working on this report and talking with people about this report, I’m using this installation to inspire awareness in other ways.
To source the materials for this installation, which were mostly non-traditional art materials, I relied on a network of friends and experts across the city and Southern Louisiana to help me find the needed resources. Finding each material often brought me into nuanced conversations about the work and the future of Southern Louisiana which helped widen the influence of the installation and the ideas I’m thinking about beyond the gallery walls and traditional art audiences.
The installation draws attention to the role of the Helis Foundation and the environmental impact of its funding in the arts arena. Many people in New Orleans and certainly most of the people visiting Prospect from out of town saw THFs name near many of the artists’ work in the citywide exhibition; it is also prominently displayed on every major arts institution in the city. However, few people seem to know the origins where THF derives its funds. By connecting this name with the oil and gas activities that established the THF that funds artwashing while neglecting meaningful mitigation, my installation helps Prospect attendees understand that they are complicit in burnishing Helis’s reputation and enabling it to shirk responsibility for its actions. My installation was covered in multiple reviews of Prospect 6, which raised the exposure of the work and this message. In “The Art Newspaper,” an international publication, editor Ben Sutton included two paragraphs about my work in his review of P.6, referring to the Helis Foundation and its impact on Southern Louisiana.
Hannah Chalew
The final part of this installation was the community tree-planting carbon-offset project in Maktub Foret. This event was originally planned as a public program sponsored by Prospect 6 but P6 withdrew its financial support. I decided to keep my commitment to this project and to helping Jaqueline and Richie get some cypress trees into the ground before the end of the 2025 tree planting season.
I organized a community planting day in March 2025, and nine volunteers and I planted 110 baby cypress trees. Before we started planting, Jacqueline and Richie gave us a tour of the land, explaining the history of the site, their plans for it, and identifying the different plants and animals that make their home there. After the tour, we fanned out across the forest and spent many hours together with our hands in the soil and roots of the baby trees we planted.
To make this event possible, I paid for refreshments out of pocket and Artists Commit generously stepped up to cover the $1500 stipend for Jacqueline and Richie’s stewardship of the trees. This stipend will support materials, water and their time investment in the project that is essential to ensure that the emissions of my installation are actually offset. Planting the trees is just the first step. To make sure these trees can survive and thrive for the 16.6 years needed to offset the carbon footprint of my installation, Jacqueline and Richard will need to be actively and continuously taking care of this land.
Just as OWGG envisions the afterlife of the oil and gas industry, planting these trees is a commitment to the afterlife of the installation, as these 110 saplings spend the 16.6 years growing needed to offset the emissions of my artwork—becoming mature cypress trees and supporting the resilience of our coast.
Image: Halle Parker
Conclusion:
The largest emissions from this project came from the materials and the energy use of the exhibition itself. Moving forward, I will be more mindful of selecting materials and planning ahead to make sure the exhibition can be more energy efficient.
As an artist making work about the environment and anthropogenic climate change, it is so important to me that all aspects of my work be sensitive to the precarity of our future based on our current actions and the decisions we make today. I believe it is the role of the artist to connect the issues of our time to the broader culture and to “make” things but in a responsible and ethical fashion. Being in an exhibition themed around climate change (“The Future is Present, the Harbinger is Home” ) and raising awareness of these issues were important starting points, but I felt compelled to direct action to track the emissions of my installation in this report and then offset the calculated carbon cost.
I recognize that the tree planting is a small drop in a very large bucket even just compared to the emissions of Prospect 6 as a whole, but I still think every “drop” matters. I offer this report as a model and a provocation not only for artists but also for all of us to take time to think about our impacts on this world and on the possibilities for a livable future.
Image: Varvara Degtiarenko
Exhibition Credits:
Thank you to everyone who contributed to making this installation a reality:
Co-Artistic Directors: Miranda Lash + Ebony G Patterson
Exhibition Manager: LB Barfield
Programming Director: Denise Frazier
Exhibition Coordinator: Devin Balara
Exhibition Preparator: Sam Hollier
Production Assistants: Julian Jefferson, Eden Chubb, Maddie Stratton, Ari Chalew
Plumbing + Plant Guidance + Install: Joe Evans and Evans + Lighter Landscape Architecture Plant Donations: CRCL, Louisiana Iris Conservation Initiative
Paint Donations: The Green Project New Orleans
Scent co-design + production: Jane Bleeker of Hazeltine Scent Co.
All the friends that donated brown paper bags
Install: Maddie Stratton, Camille Lenain, Aaron, Dom, Eli, Kevin, Sam S.
Venue: Contemporary Art Center New Orleans, Schuyler Williams, Josh Casimier, DiQuan Forcell and all the gallery guards and staff
Maintenance of Installation: Benny Brown
De-Install Crew: Margot, Meredith, Stephen, Ben + Dom
Carbon Offset Land Stewards: Jacqueline Richard + Richie Blink
Tree planting volunteers: Manon Bellet, Margot Herster, Dan Charbonnet, Rebecca Diaz, John MacMurray, Halle Parker, Henry
Childcare support: Cypress Atlas, Gail + Stuart Chalew, Lois + Mark Langberg
My family for their endless support: Sam Langberg + Izzy + Lev Langberg-Chalew
Commissioned by Prospect New Orleans
This report was prepared using a template from Artists Commit
Special thanks to Jessica Gath, my AC mentor for guiding me through this process and keeping me on track
With gratitude to the AC leadership circle for advice and for stepping in to support the stewardship stipend for the carbon offset project