Cleansing

“Cleansing” is an exploration of the performative acts of care and maintenance of the body which occur in the intimacy of the bathroom expressed through the medium of soap. Soap is intrinsic to the daily ritual of cleansing skin in the pursuit of eternal youth and the social constructs of physical beauty, but here its ephemeral nature references the transience of both these commodities. “Cleansing” is an installation of gestural soap paintings applied to a series of suspended transparent acrylic shower panels with cleaning tools appropriate to the bathroom. Within the work a tension exists between the beauty of the gestures of cleansing and an awareness of the abject nature of the exfoliated skin within the flesh-coloured soap scum residue. Whilst the bathroom remains an intimate and vulnerable performance space of self-erasure and self-editing, “Cleansing” investigates the acts beyond the restraints of social expectations bathroom privacy also permit. On my secret stage playfulness and abandon are evidence of a fleeting life.
The intention of “Cleansing” is to invite viewers into a private theatre to follow the traces of my daily bathroom ritual and reflect on their own secret performances.