Rise up from your well, dark pool. Decay and death bring power. Black mirror, a portal to the underworld. Reflecting our selfish nature to conquer and crusade. King maker, destroyer of worlds, leach to the surface for bloodletting. Your acrid flow entwines our lives, granting us freedom and comfort. But we renounced our pact with Mother Nature when we were banished from the garden. A new deal struck. We crash into the earth, break through crust to mantle. Looking to strike. A covenant with dark spirits, leads us on a path to annihilation.
Customarily, towns were built around sources of clean drinking water, and fountains were a prominent feature of communities around the globe. A place to convene, a symbol for life, a monument for celebration and sovereignty. Nowadays our capitalist structures create societies around the use of oil. It is used to heat our homes, fuel our transport, and dominates every consumer choice from food packaging to clothing. Can our contemporary civilization move away from its dependency for oil? Luke Jerram’s latest artwork ‘Oil Fountain’ is designed to encourage that debate. With its dark eerie pools, the fountain feels like a memorial for all the death and destruction humans has caused the earth since the industrial revolution. On view in Bristol Cathedral, ‘Fountain’ feels even more contemplative, and even solemn. Species of plant and animal are engraved on its side that we have already driven to extinction.
““We all need to do what we can to reduce our dependency on oil, help fight climate change and steer society towards a net zero future. With a climate crisis underway, I hope this artwork will act as a focal point for conversations and help stimulate debate about this vital issue.” ”
At the end of the exhibit all materials will be recycled from the ‘Oil Fountain.’ Public projects like this are a powerful a way of bringing global topics to the front of people’s minds through the experience of art. The climate crisis is an important issue to tackle and our reliance on oil needs to be questioned. Today, governments around the world are allowing the construction of new oil platforms across our oceans. As we stopped praying to old gods, oil became our new religion and we seem determined to sacrifice everything to obtain it.