Drinkable
Flounder Lee
PVC Pipes, PVC Fittings, glue, 5.1 channel sound (11 minute loop)
My work intends to bring something to mind that is literally and figuratively hidden from view. It uses a simple industrial material, PVC pipe, in a novel way to create something interesting and thought provoking. The soundtrack coming from throughout the installation talks about water usage.
Water is set to be the 21st century’s driving force. Sea levels are rising, drinking water is becoming scarcer, hydroelectric dams are getting bigger, irrigation is turning desert into farmland. Bottled water often costs more than gasoline.
Pipes go along with civilization, they are the veins that carry the lifeblood, but we ignore them completely until something goes wrong. They are a common sight during construction, but disappear afterward, hidden behind walls or buried underground.
Something many of us take for granted can also be something that is so vital. According to the World Health Organization, about “1.1 billion people have no access to any type of improved drinking source of water.” On the other hand, the UAE tripled its desalination efforts from 2000-2011 to 1.7 billion cubic meters of water. This type of scaling helps decrease cost and make it more viable to bring solutions such as this to the developing world.