Intentional Water

It has been observed that water’s molecular structure changes shape when exposed to different things, thoughts, images, words, environments. Since we are mostly water, perhaps the same is true for us. Our thoughts can change everything. Our private, unspoken, unwritten thoughts...

Intentional Water

Water, Glass, Paper Cups, Thought, Digestive System.

Somos Gallery, Aug 2nd, 2014.

One month ago today, I took part in a group show that would change my life. I didn’t know it’s significance at the time, and so free from the burden of understanding that it would stay with me vividly for time to come, I walked into the experience calmly and with all my wits about me. Why and how it changed my life is a subtle thread that follows, remaining undisclosed for if I acknowledge it publicly it might disappear or transform beyond recognition, and although I know that is ultimately inevitable, for now I am protecting it from dissection, shielding it from being called art by being named here. This is not to stagnate the thing itself, for it lives and so is in constant flux, but it is to acknowledge that some things are sacred knowledge, and remain unspoken. When the act of knowing changes the thing that is known, and each encounter has the influence to cause fundamental effects, I will keep this one for myself, I will nurture it until it is mature enough to be exposed.

In this group show I had two pieces. One of them was called Intentional Water (pictured here). I took three clear bottles of water and infused them with different thoughts. For this occasion I chose endurance, transformation and peace. The first two were specific to what I thought people might need at a group art show, and peace is standard, as any opportunity we have to bring that to a situation cannot be wasted. I infused a bottle with each of these thoughts and offered them for people to drink as they needed. My process to imbue water with intentions is to first take a bottle of distilled water and write the word for the intention on it. Then, or later, I sit down with the bottle in front of me, I close my eyes and I breathe, thinking of the idea I am instilling. I sit with this bottle for half an hour and maintain a focused meditation on the topic. When that is done, I put the bottle in a quiet place. The word remains printed on it, and the lid remains closed. I repeat this action with the next bottle, and the next. In this case I did it on the day of exhibition. The wonderful thing about this work was that it required me to meditate a lot in the lead up to the show. Perhaps this focus on transformation, endurance and peace is what prepared the foundations for the significance the night was to hold for me.