Water Meters
As a long distance runner, I’ve spent hundreds of hours and thousands of miles meditating on the communities and urban infrastructure I pass by on streets and trails. My art has always been influenced by and woven into my surroundings. I’ve installed unauthorized mile markers on local streets, pulled stamps from natural textures and incorporated found objects into my work. A few years back, I began to hunt water meters; taking ceramic print molds off of these literal underground entryways to a resource many Texans only recently realized we are deeply dependent on.
In my ceramic studio, I couldn’t stop thinking about how such a benign thing connected us all, and how we are at the mercy of this hidden in plain sight infrastructure, especially during the freeze of 2021. I started making texture molds from them, then sewers and eventually added survey markers - to produce a high- quality functional ceramic series of hand built cups, bowls, vases and wall hangings that are dishwasher/microwave safe and a little punk rock. The GPS coordinates of where meters were captured are marked on my pieces so you can see where the original was found.
When the city of Austin switched to smart meters in 2024, they traded nearly every single metal plate for plastic. I helped myself to as many as I could before they all disappeared. They are a piece of Austin, an invitation to think about our water infrastructure and a simple recognition that there is beauty in the overlooked. These days, my ceramic series is the only evidence of this vanishing history.
Whether it is the more frequent droughts, the reoccurring great freezes, corroding pipes, boil notices from Zebra muscles in the pipes or simply Tarrytown residences drilling their own wells to evade restrictions, these manhole covers beg the question: Who meters our collective resource?
In my ceramic studio, I couldn’t stop thinking about how such a benign thing connected us all, and how we are at the mercy of this hidden in plain sight infrastructure, especially during the freeze of 2021. I started making texture molds from them, then sewers and eventually added survey markers - to produce a high- quality functional ceramic series of hand built cups, bowls, vases and wall hangings that are dishwasher/microwave safe and a little punk rock. The GPS coordinates of where meters were captured are marked on my pieces so you can see where the original was found.
When the city of Austin switched to smart meters in 2024, they traded nearly every single metal plate for plastic. I helped myself to as many as I could before they all disappeared. They are a piece of Austin, an invitation to think about our water infrastructure and a simple recognition that there is beauty in the overlooked. These days, my ceramic series is the only evidence of this vanishing history.
Whether it is the more frequent droughts, the reoccurring great freezes, corroding pipes, boil notices from Zebra muscles in the pipes or simply Tarrytown residences drilling their own wells to evade restrictions, these manhole covers beg the question: Who meters our collective resource?
