I am starting new project and line of investigation for the last portion of my time at Metafora. I want to make an installation of dirty women's underwear.
I have asked my women friends, contacts and their friends to donate one or two pairs of their used unwashed underwear. I have not censored this list, it includes my mother, my previous bosses, colleagues, school friends, everyone. This request in itself has provoked a wide range of reactions that i feel are a worthy of debate. I would like to provide this space to converse.
As I get reactions I will post them on the blog as well as post my responses to this. However I would really like to INVITE you to post on the blog.
This is meant to be a piece that invites us to think about what this means to us, to others, in the wider context. It is so interesting to already see so many different reactions from "floor i love you this is great" to "well i'm not sure about this one". What is interesting to me is why? What makes you say that? Its about questioning our own assumptions....and having this be a place where it may lead us to a new way of viewing ourselves as women or not?
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I like the way you write 'Under Where' instead of Underwear. Many women are obsessed with their underwear. Victoria’s secret always has massive ad campaign on their products. It will be interesting to see how you can pull all this out together and create such an installation work. I’m intrigued to see the result and whether I would see my underwear differently afterwards.
ReplyDeletei encourage people to send bloody underwhere. it is reality, baby. let's get graphic! Let's give others Too Much Information (TMI). I love TMI. from billie bob
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ReplyDeleteI concur with Billie Bob. I'd send ya bloody underwear any day Floorkie. I'd even send you my fave grandma underwear worn when everything else is in the wash, has a big hole in it and has been scrubbed by various ladies around the world! Love you. xxxx
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ReplyDeleteWell you certainly have me thinking!! About quite what exactly I am not altogether sure.....my initial reaction was part revulsion/ part fascination/ part humour I think. Your idea reminded me of an art project I read about of portraits of women wearing their menstrual blood as lipstick
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/oct/02/menstruation-feminist-activists
I remember my friends 'daring' me when we were young to ask my mum what discharge was (just to get a reaction out of her while my friends giggled outside the room) but she remained cool, and answered me matter of factly. I have contributed of course. Good luck. Love, Kate
well, first comment is, you'll have to think about some deodorising practicalities (having received a truckload of dirty/used underwear from a VERY dodgy supplier in Goma in DR Congo which was supposed to be distributed to IDPs - nasty man, nasty smell). I assume its not the stink factor you're going for. I thought about sending you some freshly laundered threadbare underwear (thinking, well, how would Floor know the difference ANYWAY, I mean, is she going to smell it? Investigate it with a serious looking Sherlock-Holmes type magnifying glass? Will she DISCARD suspiciously UNSTAINED underwear? How stained does she want it to be to pass muster? Like, does it have to be OBVIOUSLY stained and will she put the STAINED parts to the fore in the art installation?) But then I realised that it was more important to be part of the dialogue, so, no, Floor, I won’t send you clean underwear). Secondly, yes well, periods are a monthly rite of passage that we all kind of have to get used to/perhaps feel empowered by, so that's not so bad, but what about MUCOUS? that's only interesting/studiously observed when you're trying to get pregnant and then you apply the incredibly scientific technique of testing 'goo-i-ness' by squidging it about with your fingers (and I tell you, POST-PREGNANCY your mucous reaches new heights of amazing-ness, well, anyway, mine has) ... but generally mucous is not a dinner-table discussion. And then I guess there's worse stains which I can’t even bring myself to mention on a public blog (well, other than I guess there’s no surprise that mothers have the odd urine-stain in there – my firm advice to all you girls out there is to DO YOUR KEGELS EXERCISES and by all means tell yourself that it will improve your sex life – it probably will – but it also means you might avoid having to wear panty-liners for the rest of your life), so there already you have my hierarchy of personal-underhygiene-squeamishness. My last comment is that IF an artist were doing a similar project on MEN’S underwear, would we find that interesting, or kinda creepy?
ReplyDeletewell, first comment is, you'll have to think about some deodorising practicalities (having received a truckload of dirty/used underwear from a VERY dodgy supplier in Goma in DR Congo which was supposed to be distributed to IDPs - nasty man, nasty smell). I assume its not the stink factor you're going for. I thought about sending you some freshly laundered threadbare underwear (thinking, well, how would Floor know the difference ANYWAY, I mean, is she going to smell it? Investigate it with a serious looking Sherlock-Holmes type magnifying glass? Will she DISCARD suspiciously UNSTAINED underwear? How stained does she want it to be to pass muster? Like, does it have to be OBVIOUSLY stained and will she put the STAINED parts to the fore in the art installation?) But then I realised that it was more important to be part of the dialogue, so, no, Floor, I won’t send you clean underwear). Secondly, yes well, periods are a monthly rite of passage that we all kind of have to get used to/perhaps feel empowered by, so that's not so bad, but what about MUCOUS? that's only interesting/studiously observed when you're trying to get pregnant and then you apply the incredibly scientific technique of testing 'goo-i-ness' by squidging it about with your fingers (and I tell you, POST-PREGNANCY your mucous reaches new heights of amazing-ness, well, anyway, mine has) ... but generally mucous is not a dinner-table discussion. And then I guess there's worse stains which I can’t even bring myself to mention on a public blog (well, other than I guess there’s no surprise that mothers have the odd urine-stain in there – my firm advice to all you girls out there is to DO YOUR KEGELS EXERCISES and by all means tell yourself that it will improve your sex life – it probably will – but it also means you might avoid having to wear panty-liners for the rest of your life), so there already you have the hierarchy of personal-underhygiene-squeamishness. My last comment is that IF an artist were doing a similar project on MEN’S underwear, would we find that interesting, or kinda creepy?
ReplyDelete“Objects now are by means meant to be owned and used but solely to be produced and bought” Jean Baudrillard said about his perception about objects. The underwear that you get is not part of the mass production of it that a person has, it is one that the person selected for you personally, in other words, she decided, by an object, to show you who her is, and also where is she from and how old she is, everything that can describe her, and the dirty side could be something of the nature over the artificial object. So the idea that you asked to people that you know for their underwear it means something that is very private for them in reference of how the object is like the form or the colors that it has, where we can know, without know who the person is, what kind of person her is, for example the one that is over the photo, in my point of view, I can see that probably is fat or have 30 or 40 according to the size of it, and analyzing the colors and design of the underwear, it demonstrates me that is about a simple person, more if we add the pants, socks and shoes that probably was at that moment when she was undressing for sending them to you that was working in home cause of the soft clothes. Knowing people by their underwear.
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