CO2RE Artists: Billie Ireland
Sacred Carbon: Where the past, present and future merge
Sacred Carbon explored the creative and ecological potential of biochar and carbon sequestration through material research and a residency at a regenerative farming project.
Billie Ireland created temporary land art investigating reverential practice to connect to place and the more than human. In contrast she experimented with waste materials, complex and hand crafted forms using pyrolysis to turn the sculpture into biochar carbon. Throughout the project Billie explored and emphasised our fragility and connection to carbon material and GGR.
Through the project Billie aimed to shift perceptions of carbon from being a pollutant to a sacred essential element in our efforts to create a diverse open discourse around climate.
Images: Selection of Billie Ireland’s previous work, credit Billie Ireland
Reclaiming Hope, Removing Carbon
Billie Ireland’s Sacred Carbon: Where the past, present and future merge, was exhibited as part of Reclaiming Hope, Removing Carbon at the Bristol Botanic Gardens in June 2026.
In the Carboniferous area of the garden, a series of sculptural works were suspended in clear vessels. While in another area of the garden a series of sculptures were immersed in the pond.
Their forms draw inspiration from ancient plant life and sacred geometry – referencing deep time and the origins of the carbon now stored within the Earth.
The delicate works were left exposed to the elements for the duration of the exhibition. This contrast – of permanence and fragility – reflects the unstable balance of carbon in our environment.
These sculptures are made from biochar, a carbon-rich material created through the heating of organic matter in low oxygen conditions. Stable yet fragile, biochar is increasingly explored as a method for long-term carbon storage. Drawing on ideas of purification ritual and reverence, the work creates space to reflect on the materials and processes that sustain life.
Images: Photos by Hanieh Shabahang
Dung Beetle:
Ceremony, Land Art &
Regenerative Farming
“During Wales Nature Week, under the July full moon and during the hottest UK summer on record, I created Dung Beetle Land Art on an upland regenerative farm in the Ceiriog Valley, Wales.”
About the Artist - Billie Ireland
Billie Ireland is an artist and teacher living in Wales, UK. She makes research-driven, site-responsive, temporary land art interventions, sculpture, paperworks and film.
For the past three years, the exploration of biochar and pyrolysis has been a central process in her work. Biochar is a type of charcoal produced from organic waste, with diverse applications in regenerative agriculture, greenhouse gas removal, environmental conservation, archaeology, and technology.
With carbon’s legacy of power, extraction and exploitation it has been through sacred ecology and connections to place that Billie has attempted to reconnect with this sustaining material. Themes of sacrifice, fragility, and resilience weave through the work, offering insights into the intersections of care, creation & connection.
Billie’s current practice attempts to capture the cycles of unseen labor and energy at the heart of both creation and craft, whilst making the flow and transformation of carbon and life’s fleeting nature palpable.
Follow Billie Ireland on Instagram
Image: Portrait of the Artist at The Centre for Alternative Technology Credit: Dulcie Fairweather