The Unknown Reasons Plumbing is Art
Art has long been something that people feel passionately about. We study it, discuss it, some of us even collect it. Some of us even create it! Painters, actors, dancers, musicians, chefs, and writers around the world have dedicated their lives to art, and we as an audience appreciate them for it. But there is a group of artists that have gone unappreciated for too long! You may know them better as plumbers.
Now, I know it is unconventional to consider professional plumbing an art, but if we take a look at all the ways plumbing contributes to an artful experience in our daily lives, we can see that it really is an art!
Plumbing Has Always Been an Art
While modern plumbing usually traces its history back to the invention of the modern toilet around 1775 AD, archaeologists have discovered primitive water pipes that date as far back as 4,000 BC.
That’s over 6,000 years of plumbing as art. The word "art" itself comes from a Latin word "ars" which can be translated to words like skill, knowledge, and even science.
Therefore, by the definition of the root word "ars," when it comes to plumbing, it was always art.
Water as Visual Art
Modern plumbing has found all kinds of ways to showcase itself as an art. The best example of the visual art of plumbing is fountains.
Everything from table-top chocolate fountains at a company event to decorative fountains in your yard, to the elaborate dancing fountains at Las Vegas's famous Bellagio Hotel, depends on an intricate plumbing system to make it work.
One fun example of an art installation involving plumbing is the Crown Fountain in Chicago, Il. This "fountain" is made up of two glass block towers, each showing a human face that "spits" water out at onlookers. It has become one of the most iconic pieces in Chicago's world-renowned collection of public art displays and can be found in Millennium Park.
Suburban Uses For Plumbing Arts
Even in your everyday life, you probably come across artistic uses for modern plumbing and don’t even think twice about them.
Think about man-made and designed lakes that are installed to make parks or gated living communities more aesthetically pleasing.
If you’ve ever been to a water park and gone down a thrilling water slide, you’ve also had an artful experience with plumbing.
Even something as unremarkable as a drinking fountain is one of the many suburban uses for modern plumbing art that you’ve probably always taken for granted. Just imagine the level of skill these lakes, water rides, and drinking fountains required to invent and construct. If that’s not art, I don’t know what is!
So the next time you are quick to judge the seemingly mundane things in your life as "not real art," remember what you read here today. How do simple things like pipes and drains contribute to your artful life? How do modern marvels like running water make your life more beautiful? Let your friends know about the art of plumbing too by sharing this article with your friends and loved ones.
