Writ of Replevin for Commingled Heterogenite

The clean energy transition relies on the legal fiction of mass balance accounting to launder the physical reality of informal human labor into the sterile components of electric vehicles.

Hand-dug Kasulo heterogenite blended into industrial battery precursor powder. · motion: The irreversible, abrasive blending of coarse red heterogenite earth into a mechanized vat of pure white lithium powder.

wall text

Mass balance accounting allows commodity supply chains to claim ethical sourcing by matching aggregate input and output volumes on paper while physically commingling informal and industrial materials. Here, the legal title to a single 50-kilogram sack of artisanal heterogenite—dug by hand beneath a residential plot in Kolwezi—is tracked into an industrial slurry of cathode precursors. Paired with a Writ of Replevin demanding the recovery of specific atoms from an electric vehicle battery pack, the work exposes how green energy balance sheets rely on the legal fiction of material fungibility to erase the physical conditions of cobalt extraction.

shown: Installed directly at the Musompo mineral market in Kolwezi, with the legal documents displayed on negotiation tables alongside sacks of raw ore awaiting purchase.

anchor facts used

Artisanal miners in the Kasulo neighborhood of Kolwezi dig tunnels beneath residential plots to extract raw heterogenite ore.
At the Musompo mineral market, middlemen (négociants) purchase artisanal ore and blend it directly into industrial supply chains.
The DRC supplies roughly 70% of the global cobalt used in NMC (Nickel Manganese Cobalt) EV battery cathodes.
Once smelted into battery precursors, the physical or isotopic origin of individual cobalt atoms is scientifically untraceable.

mechanism

Mineral rights lease agreement — A binding contract is executed with a specific creuseur in Kasulo, purchasing not the ore itself, but the legal title to the exact atomic configuration of one 50kg sack of hand-dug heterogenite.
1. The Notarized Extraction
Mass balance accounting — The legally titled 50kg sack is tracked as it is sold to a négociant and deliberately blended into an industrial bulk shipment, exploiting the supply chain accounting loophole that tracks total volume rather than physical origin.
2. The Authorized Commingling
Credit default swap — An over-the-counter derivative contract is structured to trigger a payout the moment an EV manufacturer purchasing from the blended pool issues a corporate ESG report claiming a '100% traceable' supply.
3. The Molecular Default
Writ of Replevin — A property recovery lawsuit is filed against a completed electric vehicle at a European port of entry, demanding the physical return of the specific Kasulo atoms—a chemical impossibility that traps the vehicle in perpetual legal limbo.
4. The Injunction of Atoms

lineage

Carey Young, 'Declared Void' (2005) — Expands Young's use of legally binding agreements as sculptural forms into the realm of international commodity laundering.
Amnesty International, 'This Is What We Die For' (2016) — Transposes the report's investigative supply-chain tracking into an aggressive, weaponized legal instrument.
Gordon Matta-Clark, 'Reality Properties: Fake Estates' (1973) — Replaces Matta-Clark's purchase of useless architectural micro-parcels with the ownership of untraceable atomic micro-volumes.

curatorial qa (machine verdict, unedited)

SCORE 4/5 after 2 attempt(s)
READS: The mechanical commingling of rough, raw heterogenite ore into sterile white chemical powder inside an industrial auger clearly embodies supply-chain laundering.
FAILS: The hyper-fast zoom cut between the outdoor pit vitrine and the mixing auger breaks physical continuity.

spec: antigravity agent · keyframe/artifact: gemini-3.1-flash-image · video: veo-3.1 image-to-video · qa+wall text: gemini-3.7-flash watching the render · 36.5s total