Threads 2011

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Laundry line, galvanised pulleys and cleats, wooden pegs and props, laundered clothes, fabric conditioner, plastic laundry baskets.

Dimensions: variable

 

 

Threads took the mundane activity of laundry into the gallery. The washing line is where the intimate becomes public, where hygiene becomes ritual and is a global sight connoting community, family and personal relationships. Using traditional lines, pulleys, cleats and pegs, freshly washed clothes were hung out to dry across the exhibition space. Dislocated from their conventional setting, the lines became the object of animated discussions and personal reflection.

 

The washing was finished with fabric conditioner and the clothes were hung wet. The marketing of the conditioner boasted the product had the  'freshness of spring flowers'. The previously social experience of washing clothes is commoditised and marketed as synthesised fragrances.

 

Exhibited in 2011 at Domino Effect at Motorcade/Flashparade,BV Studios, Bristol. Over five days, five artists/groups of artists entered the gallery space, responded to the work left there before them and created their own work within their 24 hour time slot, thus a Domino Effect.