Monday 18 April 2011

Marking time




The research students at UCA recently held a conference and exhibition at Farnham. This picture shows my exhibit entitled ‘Marking time’. I am studying net curtains and how they can be used to re-read the relationship between the domestic, the Uncanny and the Gothic. In particular, I am interested in the Uncanny feeling described by Freud that occurs when the familiar becomes strange, and the boundary between the homely and unhomely is blurred. This boundary, the liminal space between home and not-home, is represented by the net curtain. ‘Marking time’ conveys the position of a young woman trapped in the home and longing for escape but fearful of what may lie beyond, reflecting the duality of the home as sanctuary and prison. The net curtain pierced with pins and needles alludes to a prisoner marking time, but the misuse of feminine sewing equipment suggests a subversion of the domestic. The words of the accompanying ‘virtual’ cross stitch sampler reflect the conflicting thoughts of the trapped seamstress and they fade in and out to reflect aspects of her inner turmoil. The complete text suggests the fragility of her mental condition.

Friday 1 April 2011

Dirt



This exhibition at the Wellcome Collection covered six aspects of dirt and cleanliness: a home in the Delft of 1683, a London street in 1854, Glasgow Royal Infirmary in 1867, the first International Hygiene exhibition in Dresden 1930, a present day community in India, and a New York landfill site in 2030. All were chosen to reflect Mary Douglas’s observation that dirt is defined by its context.

The earlier sections were of most interest to me and I enjoyed the links between cleanliness and godliness depicted in the section on the Dutch house. The history of the development of the London sewers was very interesting, particularly that the scientific orthodoxy of the day was so fixed on the idea of ‘miasma’ or bad air causing disease that John Snow’s map linking cholera to polluted water was largely ignored. This section also included some interesting advertisements for Victorian cleaning products including one for Hudson’s soap claiming its regular daily use would bring purity, health and satisfaction.

The section on Joseph Lister’s transformation of the Glasgow Royal Hospital showed what a radical effect he had on recovery rates and disease transmission and how the link with miasma causing was finally broken. He introduced a dedicated laundry to the hospital, previously the nurses had done the washing as well as the nursing, and introduced white starched uniforms for the nurses, which gave the impression of purity and cleanliness if nothing else.

The aim of the Dresden Museum was to encourage personal hygiene but it was subverted by the Nazis to included ‘racial hygiene’ with its horrific consequences. The present day Indian section considered what is clean and dirty, the role of scavengers and the role of the unclean other. Staten Island looked to the future of the world’s largest landfill site and how it will eventually be transformed into a public park.

As well as the historical artefacts on display, the exhibition included modern artistic responses to dirt. James Croak’s Dirt window (1991) obliterated by dirt, contrasted nicely with Susan Collis’ broom Waltzer (2007) propped in a corner. Igor Eskinja’s untitled dirt pattern on the floor, which changed as it was walked over, was effective but seemed to me to resemble previous work by Catherine Bertola and Linda Florence, also I would have liked to have known where the dust had come from. Serena Korda’s bricks made from dust entitled Laid to rest (2011) and the accompanying video had more background information, which added to the experience and showed that dirt is indeed defined by its context.