GE Drinking Water Bottle, 2021 Polypropylene (3D printed) and 350 ml tap Water from Hudson Falls, NY, 5.5 x 3.5 x 2.5 inches. On one of my trips to Hudson Falls, I met a retired GE worker, who told me that during his career in the plant, the company gave free bottled drinking water to its employees and their families. After the plant was closed, everyone was forced to use tap water for drinking and cooking. They knew it came from the Hudson River and was contaminated by the GE plant and the nearby paper mills, but they had no other options. In response to this story, I created a short run of water bottles. The prototype was created using a 3D printer by the Norwegian engineer Mattias Lundberg. I aim to fill the bottles with tap water from Hudson Falls and send them for free to the GE board of directors at the nearby General Electric Building on Lexington Ave. in New York City. Water from Hudson Falls contains the memory of the town and its inhabitants, and I hope that when the executives drink it, they will remember what happened in Hudson Falls, NY.
Filter, 2021 140 lb. of Arches paper, river sludge, and water test strips, 30 x 40 inches.
This is a paper filtered through polluted water. I am interested in filtering the water from different places in my community. I see filtering as a process that reveals evidence of contamination. The filter is where contamination becomes a fact and can be recognized. I suspect that filtration offers us a false sense of security about our water quality, since, according to the CDC, “No filters or treatment systems are 100% effective in removing all contaminants from water.” My questions are: Why can no filter make water completely clean? Where has the clean water gone? If filters leave the water contaminated, why should we believe in their effectiveness?
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