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Saturday, April 7, 2012

In Praise of Ironing


'In Praise of Ironing'
It has to be spread out, the skin of this planet,
has to be ironed, the sea in its whiteness;
and the hands keep on moving,
soothing the holy surfaces.
poem by Pablo Neruda

I continued to search for a way to respond to the marks the tree left on the cloth.
I rejected making a bed and decided laundering them would remove the marks.
Could I just iron the sheets and fold them up?


(Source: Google Images, extreme ironing)
My research showed much belittling of the domestic activity of ironing so the action would not necessarily strengthen my work.
Pablo Neruda's poem 'In Praise of Ironing' uses ironing as a metaphor for controlling natural biological processes, the antithesis of a harmonic relationship I wished to express in my work. 

How could I add my mark in a sympathetic, symbiotic way?
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2 comments:

Judy Martin said...

I've been interested to see your process in the last four or five posts.

Your continued questioning and responding is inspiring to see.

In this case, I think it IS the process that is the art - and whatever you end up making is the artifact. (Mary Babcock)

Lesley Turner said...

Judy, you are right, i too have come to realise my art is the process. i often have to push myself to complete a work by making it presentable because it doesn't have the same importance