Three Crying Showers

2019. Timber, galvanised steel, cast iron, tin, plastic, audio.

Three Crying Showers creates a conversation about New South Wale’s water crisis - especially within the Murray Darling Basin area- within the setting of the Randwick Environmental park. This work has been previously tested at the park in late 2018 and will be fully realised for the 2019 NOX Night Sculpture Walk.

The installation feature three showers hidden among the trees, lit from within, emanating the beautiful contralto voice of Marian Anderson singing ‘Hear De Lambs A-Cryin’’. The shower is concealed by white curtains, glowing with warm light from within, creating the sense of a comforting, hot shower.

The shower head pokes out of the top of the curtains, cycling water from the bathtub below up to the shower head above. This recycling of water relates to the natural processes of evaporation and condensation. The installation itself evokes a spooky, unsettling yet high impact scene, partially hidden among the trees within the park.

The idea of the crying lambs relates to the nation’s current need for rain during this time of drought. The domestic object, the shower, highlights our everyday over-use of the precious and dwindling resource of water, and how we often take our clean and seemingly endless supply of it for granted. This is a big concern within our urban context, with a lot of people not knowing where our water comes from.