Over the past year, Bartol has developed a series of artworks that examine the role of care and caretaking in the oil and gas industry. Orphan Well Adoption Agency and In Blood and Bone are ongoing site-responsive projects that include performance, installation, drawing, video, and participatory elements.

The number of orphan oil well sites in Alberta is quickly increasing. Even once the drilling has stopped, these sites threaten to contaminate land, water, and life in the region. Remediation can take up to ten years if levels of contamination are high. The Orphan Well Adoption Agency (OWAA) is a fictional non-profit organization dedicated to finding caretakers for orphan wells. Through symbolic adoptions, members of the public are asked to consider their role as oil well caretakers. The OWAA re-imagines dowsing, a form of divination used to locate water, sites, oil, and information, as a form of technology for remediation, one that might shift our relationship to natural resources, while simultaneously examining remediation, care, and the reliability of information. This talk presents some of Bartol’s recent work in this series, including correspondence from wells to their caretakers.