Salt / Water

Exhibition at College Lane Gallery, Howth 2023. This event was part of the Eco Showboat Project

On September 9, 2023 the Mayfly docked in the salt water of Howth Harbour. Just as all waters make their way to the sea, this final stop was a fitting closure for the Eco Showboat journey; an end, but also a beginning through the complex relationship between salt and freshwater. The exhibition Salt / Water marked the event and was hosted by College Lane Gallery, 26 Abbey Street, Howth.

All salt originated in the sea, even the mined varieties such as pink and black Himalayan rock salt were once part of the seabed. While much of the earth’s surface is covered with water, only three per cent of it is drinkable and this includes water locked in glaciers and ice sheets. Water is essential to all life forms and irreplaceable by any other substance, but freshwater is a fixed entity, the planet cannot make more than it already has.

This exhibition looked at how the water cycle is being effected by climate change and how melting ice is impacting freshwater supplies in a whole series of ways. It also presented a video on desalination and probed the viability of drinkable seawater as a solution to the world’s water shortages.