Gowanus Pop-Up Bakery Will Sell Treats Made Of Coal Ash

GOWANUS, BROOKLYN — A pop-up bakery is going to set up shop in Gowanus selling treats just steps way from the neighborhood's namesake canal.

The catch? They're all made out of coal ash. And you can't eat them, for obvious reasons.

Artist Spencer Merolla is going to debut a new project called "Coal Comforts" at next month's Gowanus Open Studios event. It's designed to bring awareness to climate change issues in the current federal administration.

"The current administration wants to prop up this outmoded industry without regard to the known consequences," Merolla wrote in a Kickstarter to get the project funded. "As we have seen, nostalgia is a powerful tool––it can make what is familiar seem wholesome and innocuous, as 'American as apple pie.'

"But like the sweet treats we might find in an old-fashioned bakery, a little dirty energy might look like a harmless enough indulgence, but our global consumption patterns will be our undoing. Put simply, we can't have our cake and eat it too."

Merolla set out to raise $3,750 on Kickstarter, with donors getting their own coal cookie, cheesecake or cupcake. She ended up with nearly $6,000 so she can unveil the project in October.

The pop-up bakery will take the form of a "mobile bakery counter" to be set up on Union Street, near the canal.

"Gowanus (as we've seen) is very vulnerable to storm surges and sea level rise," Merolla told Patch. "But it's also the site of some exciting adaptation projects, such as the Brooklyn Microgrid. With all its warehouse roofs, it has tremendous solar potential. I think that here, where there is interest and resources to develop innovative responses to climate change, then doing so will not only benefit Gowanus but also provide useful technologies for other locations at risk."

"Coal Comforts is a concept bakery in which traditional baked goods are replaced with inedible versions made from coal ash," she said. "On the face of it, these baked goods look just like the real thing, but close inspection reveals that they are not what they seem. The familiar forms of cookies and cakes generally evoke fond memories, but the confounding of expectations about what is on offer at the 'bakery' invites the viewer to question the nostalgic impulse itself."

Image via Pixabay