When I took this picture, there was a guy working and stacking the bags in the cart. So, I asked if it would be possible to not clean a pile of laundry (for a small fee thinking I could avoid transportation costs or at least reduce it) and he said NO. Can't be done. I haven't given up yet, but before I push the issue of finding out how I can get a pile of dirty laundry so I can install in the gallery, I thought I would ask for some input. I am thinking of having a pile of unclean laundry like this one in the gallery with digital images on paper of common household items hung near somehow like: sinks, toilets, shower heads, soap, trash cans, etc. I didn't like my digital images and how I had mounted them. I am thinking flat transferred photos on to paper and either sand or see what comes off in the printer and work with that. I would try and recreate the image of a sink, etc by drawing in pencil or ink like an architect would very straight lines. This would contrast with the faded image on paper and relate back to the idea of memory, histories, impacts, and the pile of dirty laundry next to the images.
Thoughts?
I think the concept of dirty laundry is a good one: loaded with meaning. The intimatacy of it is important to concept, it begs the question, why aren't we supposed to air our dirty laundry in public? What does it accomplish to keep everything hidden? Is that notion, ingrained in us as it is, the reason why we can make these indelible marks in the world and then walk past them without giving them our attention - meaningful attention? Is this part of the slippery slope that allows us to walk past someone in need - it's not my problem, they shouldn't be airing it in public anyway...?
ReplyDeleteFor me, that is the interesting part... I like the idea of triggering concepts of memory, but memories of what is the question. What do you want everyone looking at the work to see?
Who posted this anyway?
With excitement and love,
Jon
that is very interesting....history of germs etc. maybe big cut outs of paper drawings of the sink etc so they ocupie more space? i like it
ReplyDeletebeth
Well written Jon and thank you Beth for the feedback. This is Michael by the way and only wrote "M" at the end, so I should be more specific on the next post.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that I need to decide what I want the viewer to look at or what I want them to see.
I so think you hit on another topic I had not thought of directly regarding this installation idea about, "that notion, ingrained in us as it is, the reason why we can make these indelible marks in the world and then walk past them without giving them our attention - meaningful attention? Is this part of the slippery slope that allows us to walk past someone in need - it's not my problem, they shouldn't be airing it in public anyway...? "
I have some thinking to do! If anything else comes to mind, feel free to comment. Michael
Michael,
ReplyDeleteI think Beth had an great idea there... Although, it might be interesting to make your other images (the narratives that you signify) come out of the laundry as cut outs from bed sheets? Or even to have half formed sculptures out of the bedsheets, as though they are forcing their stories to be told! I think you are on to something really interesting!
Cheers,
Jon