Purification Station, 2013
Plastic, Trinity River water, pecan & rose artesian charcoal, white marble chips, beach sand from Exotic Locations™, pump, and glass beverage dispenser
50″w x 61″h x 35″d

Exhibited in Experiencing Perspectives, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services, Fort Worth, TX, 2013
Exhibited in For a Limited Time Only, Brown’s TCU MFA thesis exhibition, Fort Worth Contemporary Arts, Fort Worth, TX, 2013

An emergency water filter is meant to be scraped together from whatever is at hand: buckets, cinder blocks, sand, gravel, and charcoal. Purification Station rebuilds that system with a glossy pop finish, so it looks like something you could pick up at Target, and runs Trinity River water through pecan and rose charcoal, marble chips, and beach sand from Exotic Locations™.

Survivalism has become a lifestyle and a product category, fed by reality TV and recurring end-of-the-world headlines. The piece looks at how styling shapes what we believe an object can do, and how quickly survival tools turn into decoration. Like Several Ways to Start a Fire, it is an art object as long as the art market holds and a working tool if it doesn’t.