Original artwork description:

This large oil painting was recently exhibited at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artist's summer portrait exhibition.

Coltan is a metallic ore that contains tantalite. From tantalite we can extract tantalum, a key ingredient in tantalum capacitors a component ubiquitous in nearly all forms of technology.

The planned obsolescence of today's phones, tablets and computers fuels the desire for this metal and has created one of the world's newest conflict minerals.

Mines pop up and gouge deep scars in countries such as the DRC, eradicating the already scarce territory of animals such as the mountain gorilla.

The source image for 'Coltan' has come from the very talented Alfredo Falvo and his documentary photographs on the subject.

Ready to hang!

Materials used:

Oil paint and silver leaf on board

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