Project Description

2003

Intervention
Calligraphy paper, ink, rope, pegs

Laundry is a reminder of a common practice of Shanghai’s inhabitants: all over the city, but especially in the traditional quarters, people hang their wardrobe outside of their windows on bamboo poles. The hanging laundry becomes something like a medium that communicates facts and stories of the life behind the facades. The exposed clothes are a communication device at the interface of public and private.

However, in Pudong, the new striving boomtown of Shanghai, the public display of their wardrobe is prohibited by a city planning law for ‘beautification’.

Laundry tries to fix this inadequacy, with a collection of clothes made entirely from Chinese inkwash-paper. These clothes are displayed on a washing-line along the mainstreet of Pudong, just like they would have been in one of the old quarters.
The intervention was setup in Pudong area for one day. During the installation period local police came to interrupt its completion and the intervention had to be dismantled before it could flutter in the wind to be appreciated by many.

To be seen in Pudong, Shanghai (CN) in April 2003 as part of the artist residency of Desginlab Siemens Mobile.