Water – Colour is a textile installation that aims to raise awareness of water consumption in the production and use of textiles, created by Katherine May. A sensory environment was designed around the dye process, aiming to reconnect us physically to water through a direct experience of handling water in a dye vat. I love combining art with goes causes, and I think the water - color project is one of the coolest around.
The installation took place in an old laundry building, now an atrium space for residents and traders. 100 meters of cloth were dyed in situ and suspended on washing lines hung throughout the five story building. Once the dye vats were exhausted, the final stage of the installation saw the dye station replaced by a sewing workspace and the making of the dyed cloth into quilts.
A short lesson about water: Water is vital to all living things. With 70% of the world’s surface covered by water, only 0.1% is available for human consumption. Population growth and an increase in consumption, threatens an already limited and unevenly distributed resource.
Every year the textile industry uses in excess of 370 billion litres of water. Thirsty fibre crops like cotton require artificial irrigation, and subsequent contamination of water from fertilisers and pesticides make it unfit for other purposes like drinking water and agriculture. Furthermore, the colouring of cloth diverts water into mills, expelling toxic waste into local water supplies after dyeing. These are the macro issues of a global industry, however the micro habits of laundering our textiles is now known to use more water than growing fibre, processing yarn, and all other phases of a textile’s life-cycle.
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