This installation called attention to the massive oil trapped underground in Greenpoint Brooklyn due to a centuries’ worth of spills. Fifty years of irresponsible leaking by oil companies along Newton creek has resulted in an underground lake of carcinogenic sludge more than 55 acres wide and up to 25 ft thick. In September of 2007, the EPA released a year–long study indicating that up to 17 to 30 million gallons of oil are sloshing in the soil of Greenpoint. That’s three times more than the Exxon Valdez spill, making the Greenpoint Oil Spill the largest known oil spill in American history. Written in both Polish and English (Greenpoint is a primarily Polish neighborhood) questions about the spill were posed to neighborhood inhabitants on silk-screened paper towel rolls. Twelve artists and designers performed the installation.

greenpointoilspill.com