Tuesday 5 April 2022

Charcoal and sustainability


David Nash: drawings using his own made charcoal

There is a previous detailed post on charcoal and how it can be made. However issues of sustainability in relation to charcoal production were not picked out and as sustainability is so important, I have decided to re-visit my posts on various art materials and to develop eco-narratives around them. 

First of all there are considerations in manufacture if you are not making your own charcoal. Watch this video on how a specialist charcoal supplier makes charcoal ready for art supply shops and similar outlets. On the one hand it's very good to hear that they source their willow locally and that they work in relation to a specific location so don't have to have raw material shipped in and that they have managed to keep their workers in employment over a long period of time, which suggests that they are good employers. On the negative side they have to transport their charcoal to all the various art shop outlets, so their carbon footprint is probably going to be at its worst in relation to distribution rather than manufacture. Some charcoal producers state that that their artist quality charcoal is made from Natural Willow cut offs that would usually be discarded, and some like the Dorset Charcoal Company, set out in detail how they manage their charcoal production ecologically. In their case a mobile charcoal burner system allows the company to respond to the changing needs of their local woodland and they are seeking to be beneficial to local woodlands and wildlife. Visit their site to find out more about how to spot charcoal made from unsustainable tropical wood sources. However, no matter how good their carbon footprint, there will always be distribution costs, which is why you might consider making your own at home. 

Most charcoal is actually made as fuel for fires. This is still a vital source of heat for cooking in Africa and there are both good and bad practices going on. Sustainable charcoal production requires owners of natural woodland to maintain forest cover over time, rather than converting it to other land uses, such as large scale agriculture. However sustainable production is more likely to be achieved in woodlands with secure tenure with formalised management and harvesting plans designed to maintain the broad ecosystem functions of the forest or woodland. For instance in Niger and Senegal the adoption of formalised, community-based wood fuel production has resulted in an increase in the diversity and health of the forest stock (de Miranda et al., 2010). However in other areas of Africa unsustainable harvesting, has contributed to widespread forest degradation and deforestation, particularly in the vicinity of concentrated markets, such as large urban areas (Chidumayo and Gumbo, 2013).  A very brief look at charcoal production in its wider context quickly raises issues about localised and global production and the maintenance of interconnected forest or woodland ecosystems. These issues are of course related to the production of charcoal for burning, but the maintenance of healthy woodlands and forests is of significance to everyone, and whether charcoal production is for fire or for drawing, it can either be done sensitively and in co-operation with an understanding of the local eco-system, or not.  

If you are to use charcoal and want to make a point about why you are making it yourself, you could indicate how you are thinking about sustainable resources in a wider context. You might  consider issues such where willow is grown in relation to where you are? How should you harvest it if you want to ensure it is not depleted? Perhaps you might research what other wood is available to you locally and in what form does it come, (old bits of furniture, wood picked out of skips, branches and twigs from local trees etc.). Test local trees for types of charcoal, some will make for a reddish brown mark, others darker browns or light blacks and some will be scratchy and break into tiny pieces and others very soft.  If you are making a charcoal oven, could this be part of the idea? Could you set up a sustainable charcoal production facility? Perhaps making charcoal of various sorts for the local arts community. In doing so you could help others become more self-reliant and make them more aware of how charcoal is made. Could you oversee your charcoal production as part of a local interconnected woodland ecosystem? It is important to think about this, because over 90% of all charcoal consumed in this country comes from overseas, predominantly the endangered tropical rainforest and mangrove habitats of South America, West Africa and South East Asia. In addition to the damage caused by unsustainable forestry practices in these regions, is the negative environmental impact arising from the consumption of fossil fuels transporting charcoal so far around the world.



David Nash

One artist in particular has deeply explored the relationship between ecology and charcoal, and that is David Nash, who is also exhibiting at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park at the moment. Using fallen trees, Nash has made sculptures and charcoal drawings that explore environments and ecosystems as points of intersection between nature and art. As he says, “trees take just enough and give back more”. Drawing is central and constant in Nash’s practice. It is an alternative way of learning about and understanding his subject, of finding form for ideas and recording and responding to perceptions of his environment. He uses hand made smoky willow charcoal to create intense blacks, these he will soften or accompany with softer warmer colours made from ash or oak; bold swathes of colour are achieved by using pure pigment dug out from the ground, mixed with burnt wood and ashes and wiped onto his drawings with bare hands. He uses local streams in which to dissolve ground down homemade charcoal alongside various natural pigments, which then become his inks, his ideas are often driven by the particular qualities of certain trees and their environments. His drawing Ash Dome (2007) was created using ash charcoal and earth taken from the surrounding ground, and he uses diagrammatic drawing to demonstrate  the aesthetic associations and familial links between various aspects of his ecologically tuned ideas.

Ash Dome: david Nash

Working directly with fallen twigs and other 'pick-up' elements of a natural habitat might be even more ecologically friendly. For instance every stick can be a drawing implement. When you make marks with sticks you will find them expressive and they will help you achieve a much wider range of line quality.  If you have no ink to dip the sticks into, just collect local soil, add water and draw using dirt. You can if you have more time extract colour from leaves. This video will show you how. Then when you draw both applicator and pigment will have a conceptual relationship.

How to extract colour from leaves

The German artist Nils-Udo works directly with fallen leaves and branches to create site-specific works. From delicately arranged petals scattered on the surface of a pond, to huge nests formed from twigs, leaves, and wildflowers, like Nash he tries to use what he finds in an environment such as a woodland or park, heightening our awareness by making interventions designed to make us wonder. His artist statement reads: “By installing plantings or by integrating them into more complex installations, the work is literally implanted into nature. As a part of nature, the work lives and passes away in the rhythm of the seasons.”

Nils-Udo

A charcoal burner's mound

The form of the nest like work above is heavily influenced both by birds' building activities and by the size of charcoal burner's mounds. 

Nils-Udo: Project proposal for a motorway service area

Nils-Udo's drawings are proposals for interventions often in urban spaces, whereby planting is used to soften the impact of the harsh edges of places like motorway services stations. The question though is of course is he just hiding or making more acceptable something that we should be confronting, such as the still too high levels of car use and associated carbon emissions? 

Once you have made a charcoal drawing or a drawing using soil, it may need to be fixed. Van Gogh used to use a skimmed milk spray to fix his charcoal drawings and Spectrafix Degas Pastel Fixative, also uses milk-protein. I try not to advertise brands, but in this case it is ecologically far more sustainable than toxic fixatives that operate like hair sprays. Most of us at one time or another will have used hair spray to fix a charcoal drawing, but remember the clear liquid spray is made of polymers that cause it to create a film over what you spray it on, be that hair or your charcoal drawing or an insect. Don't forget, hairspray was originally created to kill insects back in the 1940s, it was one of many chemicals developed after World War Two, that relied on advances in toxic chemical production because during that war there had been research into chemical warfare, just in case the other side decided to use poisonous chemicals to attack unprotected populations. Instead of people it was then decided to use these chemicals on the natural world; Rachel Carson's book 'Silent Spring' highlighted the issues surrounding the following unrestricted developments in using chemicals like DDT to control insects, pointing out that in the end those chemicals did indeed and still do, poison humans too. Spectrafix, not only avoids toxic chemicals it also facilitates layering, as it can be used to both fix and restore the friction you need to rework or refresh markmaking on an overworked surface, so that additional layers of charcoal can be applied.

When considering sustainability there are always more questions than answers, but if we don't consider these, we might at some point wake up to a dying planet. 

Of course paper is also a material that is often made in unsustainable ways. I will be putting up a post on the issues specifically related to paper and sustainability in the near future, but in the meantime there are several other issues to think about in relation to paper, and you can read about those at some of the links set out below. 

References

Chidumayo, E. N., and Gumbo, D. J. (2013). The environmental impacts of charcoal production in tropical ecosystems of the world: a synthesis. Energy Sustain. Dev. 17, 86–94. doi: 10.1016/j.esd.2012.07.004

De Miranda, R. C., Sepp, C., Ceccon, E., Mann, S., and Singh, B. (2010). Sustainable Production of Commercial Woodfuel: Lessons and Guidance from Two Strategies. Washington, DC: The World Bank.

See also:

Paper and sustainability 

Charcoal

The pencil and sustainability 

Sustainability resources 

Drawing on the principles of Permaculture

Making your own drawing tools

Andy Goldsworthy

On line books on paper



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