Hung out to dry: Space, memory and domestic laundry practices, a new exhibition at The University of Queensland Art Museum, is more than a homage to the backyard rotary hoist.
Part oral history project, part artistic response, the exhibition is presented in collaboration with The University of Queensland’s Centre for Architecture Theory Criticism History.
Curator Dr Allison Holland said the exhibition took an intimate look at how air-drying clothes reflected clothesline aesthetics and cultural norms.
“While artists have long been engaged with domestic practices in their work, it’s often the architecture, landscape and light that captures the imagination of art historians,” she said.
“The people who inhabit these places and their impact on and connection to the landscape is what fascinates me most about artwork detailing these practices.”
The exhibition features an interactive installation inspired by interviews conducted by UQ School of Architecture researchers Dr Naomi Stead and Dr Kelly Greenop.
Dr Stead said the oral history project explored the rules and rituals people developed with household chores such as laundry, as well as ideas of gendered labour, sustainability and climate.
“While laundry practices are often framed in terms of drudgery, there can also be aesthetic pleasure in the everyday hanging out of washing, experienced on a visual and sensual level,” she said.
“From an architectural perspective, there’s a powerful narrative around the way Queensland housing design responds to climate.
“Laundry practices provide a great example of this – with the need for cross-ventilation, use of the spaces under and around the house, and the relationship between the house and garden.
“All are part of the larger idea of a house responding to its particular place and climate.”
Hung out to dry: Space, memory and domestic laundry practices includes contemporary and historical works from the UQ Art Collection, as well as works lent by a number of the artists.
Artists include Chris Bennie, Bill Henson, Mari Hirata, Adrienne Kneebone, Tracey Moffatt, Georgie Roxby Smith and Arryn Snowball.
The exhibition will be opened at 12.30 pm on 17 April and continue until 10 May.
A panel discussion will be held at the UQ Art Museum from noon to 1pm on Wednesday 29 April, with Dr Allison Holland, Dr Naomi Stead, Dr Kelly Greenop and artists Mari Hirata and Chris Bennie discussing the works on display.
Download images for print and web here.
Media: Sonia Uranishi, +61 409 387 623, sonia@soniauranishicommunication.com, or Sebastian Moody, +61 7 3346 8761, s.moody@uq.edu.au.
Image caption: Adrienne Kneebone. As rough as grass undies, 2006/2015. Mixed media installation: Clothes hoist, cotton underwear, Cockatoo Grass seeds (Dicanthium sereciun) and Spear Grass seeds (Sorgum intrans). Reproduced courtesy of the artist.
