A few months ago I became a self-appointed Rain Collector. This means that whenever it rains I go out and collect what I can using my handmade Rain Collection System. There are definitely more efficient ways of collecting rain, but it’s the misuse of time that is most interesting to me. The rainwater is a byproduct - what I am really collecting is time. Sometimes the act of committing is more important than what is being committed to. There is more to be gained from a job than a pay cheque and there is value in doing something deliberately inefficient in such an efficiency-driven society.
My funnel is made of patchwork waxed denim, but someone else’s would look very different. Handmade things do that. They rarely make sense; take longer, cost more, and often don’t function as well as their shop-bought counterparts, but they are full of character and variation. By making my own job, I am exploring an inefficient way of doing. I am introducing another option to a world with more ways to spend money than time. While I will not be a Rain Collector forever, I can continue to make my own purpose.
Below are photographs of the funnel and the rainwater on display at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh as part of the New Contemporaries 2022 exhibition:
Each jar of rainwater was on sale at a rate of hours worked x minimum wage x gallery commission + VAT, so there was no correlation between amount of rainwater and price.
