Water – More or Less

Exhibition, The Lab Gallery, Dublin (2021), Uillinn – West Cork Arts (2022)

Water – More or Less comprises six installation works each addressing an aspect of water stress: flooding, drought, desalination, industrial contamination, seasonal shortages and the unappealing realities of water treatment.

With world population predicted to reach 9.7 billion by mid-century, demands on water may surpass available supply. Earth’s water is finite, it is unevenly distributed and unequally shared. Radioactive contamination from fracking is reducing water reserves; climate change is bringing extremes of flooding and drought and nature’s water cycle is under pressure – yet we remain unperturbed about water.

The central work in the exhibition When Water Becomes Explosive draws attention to processes of fossil fuel extraction where water at high pressure is used to explode rock deep in the earth. The artwork’s nine-squared structure is appropriated from an American ball game called ‘9 Square in the Air’. Vertical and horizontal tubes filled with oil and water reference extractive drilling and the artwork highlights the dominance of the oil industry, especially in America. Oil is highly prized while precious water is wasted and rendered toxic by these processes. The title is both descriptive and questioning; might the values of oil and water reverse at a future time?

Other works in the exhibition deal with drought, flooding and water treatment and recycled wastewater. In the upper gallery a research piece on desalination is combined with a small artwork in the form of a silver bullet – its capsule contains desalinated water from the Irish Sea.

Water – More or Less was commissioned by The Lab Gallery, Dublin (2021), curated by Sheena Barrett.