Margaret
LeJeune

Thirteen Hours to Fall

Thirteen Hours to Fall examines the climate crisis through investigations of contemporary and future ghost forests on the mid-Atlantic coast. Ghost forests, large areas of dead and dying trees, are visible manifestations of intruding salt water. In this project, I consider how colonial capitalists, the ensuing extraction economy, and rising sea levels have dramatically changed this landscape over the last 400 years. This interdisciplinary and intersectional project is informed by environmental history, including the marginalization of indigenous peoples and appropriation of their lands as well as the imprint of slavery and white supremacy in this region. Colonial timber industries, plantation farming, and climate change have extensively altered this region. Results of this shifting landscape include massive tree deaths, diminished carbon storage and biodiversity, and critical impacts on local communities.