LAUNDRY DAYS
Site-specific Installation in Venice during the Opening of The Venice Biennale
Printing on fabric, sewing, hand embroidery, silver thread, sequins, ropes
The installation consists of seven items hanging on a clothes line: one duvet cover, three beach towels, a pair of large trousers, a piece of lady’s underwear and a baby romper. The work resembles the arrangement of typical Venetian drying laundry – the ones synonymous with the old city: clothes and sheets hanging from balconies, between windows or across the narrow streets. At first glance, this hang seems like just another example, but if you linger longer, each piece reveals, through its prints and embroidery, reflections on the opening of yet another Biennale amid multiple global crises.
The central piece is a double-size printed embroidered duvet cover. The printed image depicts people celebrating with glasses of prosecco. Large embroidered lettering across the top part of the cover says “not to be insensitive, but…” This phrase is widely known as a popular meme, reflecting on our tendency to ignore even the most devastating events in order to maintain our own agendas.
The three colourful towels initially look like any you might spot drying from every other window, but instead of dolphins or pretty women in bikinis its prints contain pixelated images of disastrous fires and a view of a coast awash with plastic bottles. The smaller the garment, the more dramatic the details. Pink ruffled panties depict a crying face, and the tiny baby bodysuit, instead of something appropriately sweet, contains a print of a nuclear explosion, framed with sparkling silver sequins.
Site-specific Installation in Venice during the Opening of The Venice Biennale
Printing on fabric, sewing, hand embroidery, silver thread, sequins, ropes
The installation consists of seven items hanging on a clothes line: one duvet cover, three beach towels, a pair of large trousers, a piece of lady’s underwear and a baby romper. The work resembles the arrangement of typical Venetian drying laundry – the ones synonymous with the old city: clothes and sheets hanging from balconies, between windows or across the narrow streets. At first glance, this hang seems like just another example, but if you linger longer, each piece reveals, through its prints and embroidery, reflections on the opening of yet another Biennale amid multiple global crises.
The central piece is a double-size printed embroidered duvet cover. The printed image depicts people celebrating with glasses of prosecco. Large embroidered lettering across the top part of the cover says “not to be insensitive, but…” This phrase is widely known as a popular meme, reflecting on our tendency to ignore even the most devastating events in order to maintain our own agendas.
The three colourful towels initially look like any you might spot drying from every other window, but instead of dolphins or pretty women in bikinis its prints contain pixelated images of disastrous fires and a view of a coast awash with plastic bottles. The smaller the garment, the more dramatic the details. Pink ruffled panties depict a crying face, and the tiny baby bodysuit, instead of something appropriately sweet, contains a print of a nuclear explosion, framed with sparkling silver sequins.
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