ANDY WEBSTER
Dirt Batteries for Better Living [2023]
Soil, Plant Pots & Trays, Electrodes, Alligator Cables, Lighting Fixtures
[1.6m x 7.0m x 300mm]
Soil, Plant Pots & Trays, Electrodes, Alligator Cables, Lighting Fixtures
[1.6m x 7.0m x 300mm]
Dirt Batteries for Better Living is an installation for two interconnected spaces.
The first room contains a selection of low-lit wall lights, innocuously blending into the environment as functional lighting fixtures. Unknown to the viewer, these lights are powered by a motley collection of soil batteries, a comically over-engineered system which is revealed in the second space. Encountered through a partially closed door, the space reveals an excessive irrational effort - hundreds of potted soil batteries meticulously arranged as the power source for the meagre illumination in the first room.
Inspired by the futile, Rube Goldberg-esque contraptions of Wile E. Coyote the work embraces the inherent humour and irony in these duelling perspectives enjoying the disparity between the mundane lighting result and its laughably overblown means.
The artwork was developed with the support of the Volland Foundation in Kansas, as part of their artist residency programme in 2023.