Free Samples

Ann Bartges and Meredith Brickell: Chicago water, plastic bags, pegboard and hooks, 84”w x 66”h x 7”d, 2010

Bartges and Brickell collaborated on Free Samples during a residency at Three Walls in Chicago. After interviewing local residents, they collected water from the city’s four characteristic and historically prominent bodies of water: Lake Michigan, the Chicago River, the Sanitary and Ship Canal and the public utility tap water supply contained in the extensive network of pipes throughout the city. For this interactive installation, each body of water is represented by a mass of over one hundred individual bags filled with water that has been collected from each source.

Like a store display, Free Samples offers the viewer an opportunity to evaluate, compare, and choose from a range of related items without the context of the actual source environment. Free Samples records people’s preferences through the eventual dissolution of each collection, as viewers are invited to identify and take away their choice of water sample.