Interview
with Tetsuro Shigematsu Tetsuro Now I have a question for you. Are you Lord of the Laundry? If so, what's the one rule you'd enforce worldwide? Here's a call that came in to 1-888-SAD-GOAT… Tetsuro So, obviously we've been talking laundry here on The Roundup. And on Friday we got this call… Marie Yes, hello this is Mary Lugli calling from North Bay, Ontario. I just have to call you because I was listening to The Roundup in my studio in North Bay on Friday afternoon when you were asking listeners to contribute laundry rules and I just have to say that the timing was surreal. I recently completed a body of work on laundry and the language and tools and products associated with it and I just opened my studio to the public and on Friday afternoon I was busy working away in my studio and two visitors came in to take a look at the show while I was listening to CBC and I have to say we all kind of looked at each other stunned when you started talking about laundry because my whole show is based on laundry and my visitors actually thought I put you up to it. (Laughs.) And it was quite funny. Anyways, Sad Goat, thank you so much for that it was quite a treat to be listening to that. Tetsuro Well, Mary didn't put me up to it but I did put Mary up to joining me on the phone now. In fact, Mary's right here to tell us a little bit more about "Low Iron and Permanent Stress", her show. Hello Mary. Marie Hello Tetsuro. Tetsuro How are you? Marie I'm very good, thank you. Tetsuro Great. So tell me specifically about some of the items in your studio exhibit. Marie Well, I have to say it started with me just visiting the Laudromat and thinking about laundry because a Laudromat is usually such a bare-walled place and I thought it would be a great place to have an art show because you really don't do much when you're doing laundry. So I started thinking about fabric care and all the language and codes surrounding it. Most of us don't really understand all the codes to our, you know, what our clothes are saying to us in terms of how to treat them. And then I started thinking about product names, and why the names are chosen, and it just sort of sprung from that and I have now a whole body of work on laundry. Tetsuro (Laughs.) So there you are, you're in a Laundromat getting your initial inspiration, so what did that concretely, how did that manifest itself specifically? Marie Well, I was thinking about the fact of, you know, what is women's work in terms of the traditional look at women's work. And I was thinking about the tools of doing laundry. So one of the pieces is called Safeguard and it's actually a clothesline pulley that's affixed to a security box and when you open the box there are clothes pegs inside. So the idea is that, on the front of the box is the word "safe" with the clothesline pulley looking like an old fashioned safe that you have to dial up to get the code in to open up the safe, and inside are wooden pegs that when you line them up they look like toy soldiers. So inside the box you open it up and it says "guard". So it was this whole play on the word "safeguard" and changing what we have as traditional objects into a new context to give them new meaning. Tetsuro And in particular I was fascinated to read about your "Laundrywoman's Obituary". Could you tell me about that? Marie Well, I was thinking again of the expressions of laundry and I was looking at, you know, the whole cycle of taking clean clothes, getting them dirty and then washing them and drying them, hanging them to dry. And the expression "hung to dry" just sort of stuck on my mind; it's such a negative term. So I thought well what if I just created this story of a laundrywoman who all day long is doing laundry and how is it that she is "hung to dry" at the end of it. So, it's just words that are framed. So it goes from "normal, delicate, clean" which is just how laundry starts off. Tetsuro It's how we all start off, right? (Laughs) Marie Yeah, and then it goes through the teenage years of being "hot, wet, and dirty" and she meets somebody who picks her up, carries her and cares for her. And then she's probably faced with marriage and a "full load" of responsibilities, where "permanent stress" comes into play and she feels "washed up" and then maybe something happens where she's "spun", and then "hung to dry". And then feels "clingy" which some women feel when they're in a position where there relationship is falling apart. And then she's "faded" and "wrinkled" and has "low iron", "no steam" and "cold". (Laughs.) Tetsuro (Gasps.) Marie It's quite sad. Tetsuro Ah, the tragedy of laundry. I had no idea. Marie It is a tragedy. (Laughs.) Tetsuro Now what kind of conversation does your exhibit spark. Marie It was quite interesting. I actually had a number of people that had never been to art shows that showed up. And one woman came to me and said, "You know I have about 4 loads of laundry tonight," and she said, "I decided to come to the art show instead." I was quite happy to hear that. The reaction was really very very positive. It was, people loved the sense of humour about it, and certainly they liked the idea of playing with product names and that kind of thing and it just gave them a new perspective on the activity of doing laundry. Tetsuro And I think that's something people would find refreshing about your exhibit is that the subject matter is so everyday and unpretentious and yet you were able to take it to another level. Marie Yeah, it's something we're all familiar with, ya know? We all have that language and those tools. Tetsuro And we're all doing laundry. (Laughs.) Marie Exactly. (Laughs.) Tetsuro Now, do you have a particular laundry rule as lord of your laundry universe that's you'd like to put out there? Marie Well, I'll tell you one of my visitors came to me with an article she found from the newspaper about this man in Spain who invented what he calls "Your Turn" washing machine and I thought that would be really interesting for couples who feel they're doing more than 50% of the work in the house. Tetsuro Oh, yes, I've seen that article. In fact there's a technology, some sort of thumbprint reader. Marie Yeah, you have to get your fingerprints registered and you're only allowed to do the wash once and then somebody else has to take their turn to do the laundry and then you have to do the laundry the next time around. So, I thought that was a really neat thing. (Laughs.) Tetsuro (Laughs.) That is a really neat idea. Now, how can people in North Bay Ontario find your studio or find the exhibit Marie Well, we’re right on Main Street, so it's very accessible. We're right underneath the clock on Main Street. I'm at 141 Main Street West. Tetsuro Mary Lugli is an artist living in North Bay, Ontario. You can find an article about her work including photos at the online magazine at baytoday.ca. That's baytoday.ca, and that's spelled b-a-y-t-o-d-a-y.ca. Baytoday.ca, and it's in the arts section. Music "There's
just one job in my household that never ever gets done… It's the
laundry…"
|
|
< back to artist section < return home
|