Laundromat/Laverie/Wassalon

'Laundromat/Laverie/Wassalon'

hoop is 'n seepbel

en ons blaas dit aan, ons blaas dit op

maar die asem bly nooit binne nie

dit vind 'n gaatjie en...

breek!

soos 'n kuiken deur 'n dop.

This work was created for the ESCAP3 Gallery Group Exhibition: 'Know Thyself' (Monday 04 July – Friday 30 September 2022). In answer to the exhibition’s theme – and thereby in seeking the first of the Delphic maxims – a scene is constructed through pseudo-religious symbols. These symbols argue for the mystic experiences that underlie deep self-knowledge.

The work takes American Buddhist writer Jack Kornfield’s 'After the ecstasy, the laundry' (2001) far too literally. Following this absurdity, the drawing appropriates symbology from late Middle Age paintings by Flemish masters to construct a scene of ecstasy on laundry day. The healing cloth held by the saint (known as a vernicle by art historians) in Hans Memling’s 'Saint-Veronica' (c. 1470) is recast as fresh, white laundry. The throne from Jan van Coninxloo’s depiction of 'The Virgin and Child Enthroned' (c. 1530) becomes the divine laundromat.

Jan van Coninxloo l 'The Virgin and Child Enthroned' l c. 1530 l The National Gallery, London, U.K

Hans Memling l 'Saint-Veronica' l c. 1470/1475 l National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, U.S.A

As an act of self-knowledge, the work, the artist and her characters all shyly admit to the blatant attempt at allegory. Questions are opened around the nature of ecstatic enlightenment and how mystic experience fits into a realistic sense of oneself. In paraphrasing Kornfield (2001:xiii), we all know that after the honeymoon comes the marriage, after the election comes the hard task of governance. In spiritual life, it is the same. After the self-knowledge comes the self-control. After the ecstasy comes the laundry.

Kornfield, J. 2001. 'After the ecstasy, the laundry'. New York: Bantam Books.