Rigby, Emma, Whitson-Smith, Jade and Harrison, Lizzie (2017) The Laundry Pile: Meanings and Mundanities of Everyday Life. [Show/Exhibition]
Abstract

Clothes laundry is one of the hidden practices of fashion - while wearing clean looking and fresh smelling clothes is fundamental for most people, our laundry practices are concealed within the monotony of everyday life. And loaded with cultural and social meanings. Yet laundry practices are simultaneously problematic since the collective use of domestic washing machines and dryers consume massive quantities of environmentally significant resources such as energy and water. The environmental impacts of laundering are inadvertent and somewhat ironic: laundry can be understood as a practice of both purity and pollution.

Efforts to reduce impacts from laundry have been mainly focused on technological efficiency and individual changes in behaviour. These initiatives appeal to a logic of direct reductions in resource use, but they fall short in responding to the meanings and values that are reproduced and enacted through doing the laundry and the social construction of practices. As such, despite continuously improving product and appliance efficiency, the net consumption of energy incurred through doing the laundry has in fact doubled since 1970 (Goodright and Wilkes, 2015).
Looking beyond the mundanities of doing the laundry, this exhibition explores some of the cultural and social meanings that laundry practices help to reconstruct and reinforce. It brings together a range of work from a small group of fashion activists, theorists and researchers from London College of Fashion and the University of Huddersfield who have explored laundry from a range of different perspectives. It includes a mix of photos, garments, illustrations and a pop up garment grooming station – giving an up close and personal glimpse into the secret world of laundry.

Information
Library
Documents
[img]
Exhibition overview
The Laundry Pile.docx - Published Version

Download (77kB)
[img]
Supporting text for exhibited work
Laundry Pile copy.docx - Published Version

Download (16kB)
[img]
Preview
Waste water.jpg - Other

Download (267kB) | Preview
[img]
Preview
Wastewater dye illustration.jpg

Download (303kB) | Preview
[img]
Preview
Wastewater dye.jpg

Download (397kB) | Preview
[img]
Preview
[img]
Preview
Laundrette photos.jpg

Download (418kB) | Preview
Statistics

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

Downloads per month over past year for
"The Laundry Pile.docx"

Downloads per month over past year for
"Laundry Pile copy.docx"

Downloads per month over past year for
"Waste water.jpg"

Downloads per month over past year for
"Wastewater dye illustration.jpg"

Downloads per month over past year for
"Wastewater dye.jpg"

Downloads per month over past year for
"Zine.jpg"

Downloads per month over past year for
"Laundrette photos.jpg"

Add to AnyAdd to TwitterAdd to FacebookAdd to LinkedinAdd to PinterestAdd to Email