Sarah Bildstein

Water is an essential component of human life, a strategic resource on earth and an important factor in many political conflicts. The project 100 Spectres by the artist Sarah Bildstein deals with the context of the water crisis, and reflects on the causes and effects of climate change. In collaboration with scientists from the Zukunftskolleg of the University of Konstanz, 100 water samples from all over the world were analysed in a laboratory and transformed through the use of chromatography. They appear as coagulated, but at the same time flowing spectres on paper.The variety of colours in the 100 images in this series can be traced back to a color scheme that the artist developed based on measured water values, and those obtained through the use of a pendulum. The index shows the individual origins and lists the water components and parameters for each of the 100 water samples, which informed the amount and concentration of ink used in each painting.In this process, a part always remains unpredictable and open. The individual artworks are like results that could not have been foreseen during the process of creation, much like a landscape is unknown to a traveller who is crossing it for the very first time.