January 28, 2013

Laundry Works

Mother Art Laundry Works

Laundry Mats have long been used as a place for public interventions. Mother Art, a collective from the 70's, 80's, brought their perspectives as mothers and artists to Laundry Mats in LA. 

“Articulate, timely and provocative, Mother Art considered the effects
of its work, especially Laundry Works, on a deep social and psychic level:‘It crossed class lines; there was something absolutely wonderfully material about dealing with the sheer transformation of dirty clothes-wet, dry and the cycle, the literal revolution -and the metaphors are ripe for connections with social revolution, perhaps even something unimagined, perhaps utopian.’" 


I think about my own work with laundromats... the menstruation series where I went and interviewed various women at laundromats around the city. 

Description of that project:

"For my last cycle (November, 2012) I chose to use hand made sanitary napkins that I had sewn together. To clean the pads, I took them to several laundromats in the city. During the time span of washing and drying the pads, I would ask women in the laundromats to speak to me about menstruation. I let them know that I was a young woman interested in how other women dealt with their periods and why they thought it was taboo to speak about in public. I asked them if I could record the conversations with audio and each one consented. The conversations varied in length but inevitably ended up touching on multiple topics outside of menstruation. The text that follows comes from partial transcripts from the conversations, focusing particularly on menstruation." -Phoebe Bachman (myself) 



There of course, is also the Laundromat Project

"The Laundromat Project is a community-based non-profit arts organization committed to the well-being of people of color living on low incomes. Understanding that creativity is a central component of healthy human beings, vibrant neighborhoods, and thriving economies, we bring art programs to where our neighbors already are: the local laundromat. In this way, we aim to raise the quality of life in New York City for people whose incomes do not guarantee broad access to mainstream arts and cultural facilities."

Laundromats are interesting because of their function as community centers. Particularly in places like New York and San Francisco, where there are laundromats on every other corner. 

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