‘Don’t wash your dirty laundry in public’ documents my work at ‘Bodies: a group residency by Synecdoche’ from 1st-30th September 2016. It’s based around a series of temporary installations of used clothing in an empty shop in a busy shopping centre in Bristol. The space was open to the public for 4 days a week. It took on a life of its own and became part social engagement, part performance but was also participatory, confessional, interactive, and highly conceptual.
Clothing is often thought of as a second skin; it makes us think of bodies. Soft and impermanent, clothes can remind us of our mortality. I spent a month hanging out the same clothes again and again in different ways in an empty shop, arranging them in body bags, talking to people, writing down their comments and taking photos. The clothes belong to my family and I’ve been giving them away. It has made me feel very vulnerable at times. I have been making public things that are normally private.
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