This past week was a busy one at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA. On Sunday, I gave my first talk about Taking on Water, my upcoming book, to a great audience of family, friends and even kids! During the week, I served as an artist-in-residence, working with visitors on a collaborative art project to build a large wave covered with recycled denim. The form measured about nine feet long by seven feet wide by six feet tall, and represented the volume of water required to make one pair of blue jeans (roughly 2,200 gallons!)–its water footprint. The event was a great success with hundreds of kids and their families participating. Participants drew pictures, wrote messages about water, signed their names to patches of denim and affixed them to the wave form. Most were surprised to learn how much water it takes to make our clothing, grow our food and otherwise provide for our lifestyles.
Little Visitors at the PEM
Building the Wave
Beneath the Crest
Little Mermaid
Denim as Water
The Wave
This is the nee of the hour to make people recognise their needs and how we misuse this precious resource unmindfully. Keep it up. Always by your side to propagate what you want to bring to the notice of the masses.God bless you with the best of health and vigour .
Regards
H.P.Singh
Congratulations. Your method of representing the embedded water content certainly is spectacular and I would expect eyeopening for the audience. While we’re all expected to be concerned about and minimise the greenhouse gas emissions that we are responsible for creating as part of our daily lives and as consumers of products and services, there is no equivalent fervour or impetus for us to be likeminded about our aggregate water footprint. The water conservation focus is generally confined to domestic direct water use and the water use efficiency of shower heads, cisterns, dishwashers, etc, but most people have little awareness of the (comparatively) enormous indirect water consumption they are responsible for as a consequence of their consumption of goods and services. Your efforts will improve consumer awareness of water footprints and hopefully change consumer behaviour/decisions appropriately. Best wishes.
Thank you, John. It was remarkable to witness the reactions of some of the visitors–both children and adults–when they understood the meaning of the installation. You are correct that most people have not been educated about the extent of our indirect water consumption. I hope to undertake similar activities elsewhere to continue raising awareness. Wendy
Wish I had been there to witness you sharing this important message in a fun, creative way that I am sure will impact the actions of all those who were lucky enough to be part of the event. Thanks for all you do to make this world a better place for us to live!