The Weighing of the Heart and the Los Angeles Fires

This is about the fourth year anniversary of the Australian bushfires and the week of the LA fires. I reflect on the process of my project, The Weighing of the Heart, a sculptural series of anatomically correct human heart sculptures cast from the ashes of the Black Summer, the most intense bushfire season in Australian history, which occurred from 2019-2020. Each heart measures approximately 11 cm x 8 cm x 9 cm and weighs about 400 grams — slightly more than 331 grams or the average weight of the adult human heart. The extra weight of the heart sculptures when compared with real human hearts represents the heaviness of feeling experienced due to climate catastrophe. View the process of making them here.