Dirty Linen
Airing your dirty linen is an old idiom, exploring the idea of exposing intimate details from our private lives publicly.
The idea of linen containing the residue of family secrets, ‘airing’ your dirty linen is allowing public scrutiny of something that is personal, opening the possibility for judgement or shame.
In these photographs, I tread lightly between the contrasting feelings of intimacy and voyeurism. Catching a glimpse, revealing a truth, exposing a secret. It is unclear if permission has been granted or are these stolen moments.
The sculptural quality of the finished works supports a growing interest in the hybridising of the photographic medium. While referencing historical wet photography, this work is process driven, guided by the material qualities of the printed surface of the fabric. I have always loved polaroids, they are instantly an object and a photograph, you can hold it in your hand, a moment of time, by transferring the images to fabric, just like a polaroid lift or transfer, these works become photographs and objects. Are they a photograph of and object, or an object that is photographed.
The literal materiality of the works, coupled with the reproduction style, allows for the images to be scrunched, folded and layered, further obscuring the hidden truths and suggesting a degree of separation, something discarded or hidden away in a draw.