Catalog Entry from If These Walls Could Talk Exhibit, Neill-Cochran House 2020:

“The best laundry story I ever heard is from my sister-in-law, a professional who had a life-changing religious experience, not while at work or worship, but while folding laundry. Each item here is something she’s washed and folded many times: socks, towels, nightgowns, teeshirts, etc. This laundry is fresh and warm, loosely piled, not sorted or fretted over, but just what it is. A lectionary developed with several verses for each piece. Biblical imagery for washing is, of course, plentiful—think of stain removers, softeners, being folded. Using Scripture in such an allegorical way may turn it into a laundry list, but it also gives meaning to that domestic chore that is ever- present. A Zen expression says it well: “After enlightenment, the laundry.” (Artist’s note from 1994) Many denominations use a lectionary guide for sermon preparation. It offers a full-year reading of the Bible by positioning three or four verses together each week. One will be from the Psalms, another Old Testament verse, one from the Gospels, and one from elsewhere in the New Testament. Sometimes the combinations seem quite arbitrary and the preacher is compelled to dig deep to find a commonality in them. It is similar to the way I work in art—mashing together several sources that at first seem unrelated to see what happens. My sister-in-law displays this pile of laundry in her dining room, an odd place to fold laundry unless you are a rapid multi-tasker like she is. Here in the workroom, it is suitably placed alongside the set kettle, where clothes would have been washed in hot water.