A fountain functions even without any special artistic intervention. The relationship to art is therefore similar to what is commonly referred to as public art.
The fascinating thing about a fountain is the water, with all its metaphors and its never-ending flow.
Combined with my themes from the immediate and wider context of the household, I am especially interested in this repetitive, endless flow. Many household chores require water and almost all of them are self-perpetuating. Scarcely have the clean dishes been put away in the cupboard, and dirty dishes begin appearing in the sink again. Or the floor has just been mopped, and someone enters with dirty shoes: a perpetual cycle. That is why such routine tasks fit so well together with the endless flow of water for me.
This being said, any dirt and debris in this fountain would in fact be cleaned. The dish-washing fountain is also a special dishwasher model.
My grandmother always said that cleaning house also cleanses the mind and soul. In some respects, she was probably right. Those who never need to do these incessant tasks are deprived of a basic link to life. Those who only do such tasks, however, can never broaden their horizons.
The water in the dish-washing fountain runs like a shower, downwards over the tower of dishes. There are roughly as many plates, pans and sets of cutlery, etc., in the tower of dishes as one would find in an ordinary Central European family household. While I was photographing my work in Weiertal, I heard a visitor comment to his wife: “She hasn’t got any dishes in her kitchen now!”
It also brings to mind the unpleasant scene when, on the morning after a party, the dishes are stacked up in the kitchen.
I am very interested in the mundane, in the ordinary things we are all familiar with. They can be easily changed and doing so leads to the discovery of extraordinary stories and contents therein. I believe the closer we are to things, and thus the more familiar things are to us, the more stories and fantasies they contain. It’s just that the daily routine and habit frequently conceal them.
Sharon Kroska e