Constellations

Concept

Each monochromatic hand-drawn charcoal portrait represents a woman with her own distinct identity, functioning as a self-contained narrative. The tea towels are arranged on a clothesline, symbolic of the communal activity of ‘doing the laundry’ in less developed societies, and is representative of the clothes of families that are literally hung out to dry - a metaphorical cleansing and exposure of experiences that are both lived and shared. Interweaved on a single laundry line, the multitude of portraits reflects the unified and yet fragmented nature of society. The materials signify the repetitive nature of this chore, emphasized by the monotone of the women who seamlessly blend into their community. The public clothesline reverberates the universality of the arrangement; whilst representing the global, the installation also reflects the local society in which this public art is situated – on the South Lawn of The University of Melbourne. The site is a multicultural ground whereby people from all nations intermingle. The installation develops upon notions of narrative, memory, ‘superfictions’ and constructed realities, characteristic of Conceptual Art, in which the idea of the artwork takes precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns.

Technique

The portraits are drawn with charcoal, pen and ink on paper and are transferred onto fabric using an iron-on transfer technique. The quality of the transfer is determined by the clarity of the source image; to ensure images are visually evocative, it was necessary that the drawings boasted clear features and displayed high contrast. Images that are too dark tend to “bleed”, particularly on thin, non-absorbent fabric. This technique offers colour retention and durability when washed, which was ideal given it was essential that the installation could withstand undesirable weather conditions.

Process of creation from illustration to transfer.

Influences

The project was approached by questioning what an installation is - a genre, a style or a medium. For me, an installation is the creation of an environment, its subjection to space and time and its interactions with the public. Taking root in Minimalism, installation art explores the materiality of the medium, influencing how the arrangement of the artwork embodies the message. Names like “temporary art” and “environment” describes installation art’s emphermerality. In effect, the transient nature of the medium is reflected in the transitory arrangement of the clothesline that can be constructed and dismantled. One can be immersed in the work and its environment, and question the separation or unification of art and life, given the installation is perceived as the environment itself. Indian Women Lining the Laundry is influenced by the 1960s Conceptual Art movement whereby artists including Dan Graham, Hans Haacke and Douglas Huebler emphasize the idea of the work. The Mattress Factory, a museum of contemporary art in Pittsburgh (United States), inspired the installation’s ensemble of objects that deny medium specificity. The museum presents art in room-sized environments with exhibitions featuring media that engages the senses. Artists including Wang Youshen, Wu Mali and L’ubo Stacho inspired the installation’s thematic concerns with narrative and identity. Furthermore, the aims of Environmental Art, art that uses the site as a catalyst for the creative process, induced the situational qualities of the work – the meaning of the installation has a contingent relationship with its surroundings.

Indian Women Lining the Laundry intentionally blurs the boundaries between fiction and fact, and explores the notion of ‘superfictions’. ‘Identity fictions’ are popular in recent artistic practice, with a number of artists exploring the issue. German sculptor, Iris Häussler, for example, produces immersive installations comprising fictional narratives that explore concepts of social origin, such as family ties and relationships, and physical origins, such as divergent life histories and emigration. Häussler’s work contains fictitious memories, in which the artist constructs the habitation of a fictitious protagonist. Similarly, Mary Schepisi’s Speculations (2004), consists of portraits of women from all walks of life. In her interactive installation, she encourages viewers to match fictional biographies to the portraits. Schepisi’s watercolour and ink portraits reveal how different women form our female commonality. Viewers of the work are able to impose their own interpretations on the portraits.