SOURCE DUBLIN: FIELD OF WATER

MARY COBLE

For Source (Dublin), the artist Mary Coble will collect samples of tap water from over 100 residential and commercial sites across Dublin to create a water archive, or Field of Water, in Science Gallery. In a one-day performance that mimes the near Sisyphean acts of daily water collection in the developing world, Coble will lift and pour these samples into a fountain that continuously filters the water. At the end of the performance, water from all over the city, now in this central source, will be available to gallery visitors to drink for the rest of the exhibition period. Source (Dublin) is the continuation of a project, first run in Washington DC in 2010, which aims to raise social awareness about water quality and availability in local and global communities. Through the process of water collection, Coble engages communities in conversations that address the economic, ecological and health issues related to the commercialisation and commoditisation of water. Where does your local water come from and how far do you trust its reported quality? Who has access to pure water? How long will local and global water supplies last? What are the costs – financially and ethically – of bottling and transporting water?