Lynn Hershman Leeson in collaboration with Dr. Thomas Huber and Richard Novak/The Weiss Institute Harvard 

More than two billion people on the planet are forced to drink contaminated water. An estimated 502,000 people die each year from the conditions of drinking unsafe water that contains plastic, bacteria, parasites, and other contaminants. 

This “twist” of science and art began with the design of the “bacterial activity indicator” to expose bacteria in degrading plastic. The water purification system AquaPulse kills bacteria. It creates filtration for emergency recovery efforts to clean highly contaminated water. The basic structure of the AquaPulse system can be made fluorescent. By creating a fluctuating “glow” it could be possible to not only emphasize the DNA structure within the selected image of the test tube Water Woman, but also to expose the progressive decrease of toxicity in the liquid through colored lights. 

Twisted Gravity consists of six pedestals, each displaying three plastic panels etched with the figures of women. Three of the pedestals contain AquaPulse units that use electronic pulses to kill pathogens like bacteria in water, while the other three pedestals contain bioreactors that evolve microorganisms that can degrade plastic. Both the levels of pathogen killing and plastic degradation are reflected by changes in the brightness of the panels. 

Twisted Gravity premiered in Seoul, South Korea as part of the Gwangju Biennale exhibition in April 2021 and had its US premiere at the New Museum, New York. Water from local rivers will be filtered through this system into purified drinkable water during the timeline of the exhibition. 

“Twisted Gravity beautifully reflects dual cycles of technology solving one problem but creating another, and nature creating one problem but solving another,” Novak said during the panel discussion. “Working with Lynn opened our eyes to the counterpoint of our water purification system: we’re using a plastic system to kill bacteria, what happens to that plastic? Then the evolution concept came in of evolving bacteria to degrade plastics. That concept has spawned an entirely new research project at the Wyss Institute – let’s use bacteria to solve the human waste problem of plastic. This collaboration didn’t just create an art installation, but new science as well.” 

Lindsay Brownell, Harvard University Press September 21, 2021