She Speaks

Outed at last, Virginia spoke to the masses crammed into the Bunbury Regiona Art Galleries exhibition space on August 1st to speak to her audience about the inner workings of her Cunning Stunt machinations.

Ginny does Abbey Rd

Toting our most precious possessions we boarded the galleries vessel for a morning of delight and solidarity among a collection of newly recruited Virginias. As one observer duly commented to a delighted Ms Cunningham; 'I'd be disappointed if I didn't have a little bit of Virginia in me'.

Helen and Jean Speak, Steam and Spray

Virginia spoke of her humble origins, her exhibition intentions and what the future may hold for a Virginia scattered across the state in all directions. From her humble regional roots she has grown in confidence and strength and plans to continue her Granny Guerrilla actions in the urban and rural landscape. In the Kimberley, Derby and Broome Dwellers may be in for the occasional humble domestic artistic fancy swinging modestly from the trees to announce her 'spreading of wings' into other regional areas.

Helen Shows how it is done in style

Audience members were delightfully generous in recounting personal stories aroused in response to the exhibition and the tea towels on show. Virginia was humbled by the beautiful anecdotes bravely shared in the space. Many women spoke of the traditions and generations of home-making handed down over the years. The teatowels - in their suffocating domesticity - struck a chord with many participants who responded to the intensity of the claustrophobic intimacy of the doemstic sphere re-created in the installation space.

All in all, between the squirt and hiss of the iron, Virginia managed to smooth out the wrinkles collected in her laundry basket with pride, nourished by the shared experience of those collected together on this most auspicious occasion.

Spun Dry

The Spin Cycle exhibition opening for Virginia Cunningham was a blast. Virginia was most humbled by the endearing rambles put forth by her dear friend and esteemed academic Prof. Ronald Crunkle who said many a wise word about 'wegional life' and the arts as well as a particular breed of Australianness.

 Prof. Crunkle toasts Virginias at Spin Cycle Opening

Virginia has instructed us to post some images here if you haven't yet managed to or can't get to the Bunbury Regional Art Galleries to see the show. One of the most incredible aspects of the installation is the distinctive aroma of the 3rd drawer down. Known to tea towel users the world over; that familiar faint smell of laundered linen mixed with fetid fat particles welded to the fibres of the fabric and emanating forth a most unusually familiar smell of housework. The smell of household groundhog day subltly permates the exhibition space as a result of the many donated teatowels rendered into artworks and strung from a criss-cross of clothesline throughout the space.

 Opening Legs

Another wonderful aspect to the installation is the intimacy it affords the audience. The criss-cross clothesline works to create a multitude of 'rooms' locking the viewer into a small and intimate space - literally four 'walls' of teatowels. One has to negotiate their way through the space by parting the teatowel 'curtains' to enter into the next space, and so on. Each teatowel 'room' is approximately 4 - 5 teatowels wide and 2 - 3 teatowels deep so it creates a lovely disruption to the stranger-in-the-gallery syndrome. One is immediately compelled to communicate with the person already occupying the space you have just slipped yourself into because the space is so intimate and cloistered. The only way you can find the rest of your party is to identify their feet or legs and negotiate the tea towels to arrive at their space. Beautiful. 

This installation challenged the traditional notion of the exhibiton opening as a social networking party - there was no way of seeing the whole at any one time as you found yourself completely immersed, people were absorbed and lost in the space, identifiable only by their legs or feet. There became a 'hide and seek' aspect as people would suddenly discover someone they knew in the adjoining tea towel corral.

The Entrance to the Installation

Indeed, the proximity and cloistered spaces claims a territory impossible to explain to anyone without firsthand experience - that of the suffocating entrapment of the house and neverending housework. The two rooms evoke a sense of claustrophobia as one attempts to navigate through, hoping to come across a larger space for a breath only to discover space after space of tea towel rooms almost the same as the last, yet with subtle differences - the teatowels themselves.

It is impossible to capture in stills - or even on film - the impact of Virginia's most awesome cunning stunt yet. It is an adventure to be experiencd first hand. Virginia has decided to travel the show, perhaps Perth for now - she is still 'in talks' with herself about this prospect at some stage in the near future.

 

 Tea Towel VideoWork on floor of second room (and avid audience)

ABC Southwest has been following Virginia's story and posted a video of the Virginia's at work in Hath's Mullalyup studio. This can be seen here if you are interested.

Still to come - Virginia's floor talk...stay tuned, ever faithful...