Arsenic

Elements – Arsenic, Iodine, Oxygen and Mercury. The pieces in this multimedia installation represent the four elements and their uses in lighting. In "Arsenic" a dolls house is lit with LEDs that are based on arsenic. The walls are covered with green “Trellis” the first wallpaper design produced by William Morris in 1864. Professor Andy Meharg, of the school of biological science at Aberdeen University, analyzed a fragment of "Trellis” wallpaper and found it contained copper arsenic salt (Scheele’s green). Morris’ father help set up the mining company Devon Great Consols, which in the Victorian period was the biggest arsenic producer in the world. The house is carpeted with moss to represent the damp that activated the arsenic in wallpaper, releasing a highly toxic gas trimethylarsine. As well as the environmentally “green” qualities of LED lighting.