Although we cannot take credit for this one, we would like to see clothesline installations like this at numerous colleges and universities, in the city streets and alleys of America. Learn more about creative art installations which have occurred as a result of Project Laundry List and community partners working together.

 Jane Ingraham Allen

"Letting It All Hang Out"

Brooklyn, NY

1995
 

The artist writes, "Letting It All Hang Out was an interactive installation and part of the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition's 1995 Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition at Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park, at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge in Brooklyn, NY. This sculpture of used clothing was installed by me as a performance piece at the opening of the exhibition. The work offered visitors the opportunity to create their own line of wash by changing, adding to or taking away these and other clothes left in the laundry basket. Instructions to the viewer were posted on the flagpole. The installation changed many times during the four weeks of the exhibition and gave new recycled clothing to some participants."

Yvonne Harder

"Ceci n'est pas une lessive"

Geneva, Switzerland

2004

I live in Geneva, Switzerland. Last week we had the visit of a policeman announcing we would be liable to pay 18

0 CH

F if we would go on hanging our clothes to dry outside. As this week happens to be the "neighbors day" I quite spontaneously invited the neighborhood to inaugurate "the washing tha

t is no washing": an installation of clothes hanging from a clothes line with the words "ceci n'est pas une lessive." This means: "this is no washing," a reference to the very famous painting by René Magritte, "ceci n'est pas une pipe" or "this is no pipe," meaning of course that this is not a pipe but a picture of a pipe. In my case the meaning is obviously somehow more distorted, as the washing by becoming art is no washing anymore...

The Green Artists League

The Green Artists League (GAL) is an interdisciplinary artists' collective that creates public art addressing the global environmental crisis. GAL is a forum of contemporary artists exploring art and ethics in an era of ecological degradation.

They held “Air Your Dirty Laundry” at Newburyport’s Green Expo on Energy and Sustainability, November 14th and 15th, at the Nock Middle School in Newburyport, MA. The idea was to give a kitchen table “Eco-Confession” with one of the GALs, who would write it on an article of clothing or linen, and then you would hang your green transgressions out to dry on a clothesline.

To learn more about the Green Artist's League, visit click Green Arist's Link.

Alonzo Davis

"Art Clothesline"

Installation
18'h x 40'w
Houston TX
1991

Lisa Smith and Naomi Munro

"Bexley Clothesline Project"

Cambridge, MA
2003

One of the artists writes, "I got this idea in Holland, in Ananda's backyard, staring at her clothespins. I worked on it with Naomi Munro, and we turned it into our public art project for 4.302. The building is Bexley Hall, my dormitory, and is located on Mass Ave. in Cambridge, MA. The project stayed up for 2 weeks." Visit their site and see their laundry day video.

Find out more about National Hanging Out Day.