My Beautiful Laundry

Artists spin dirty clothes into art.

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My Beautiful Laundry, an exhibition by Annie Canto and Jasmina Majcenic, re-imagines the function of a gallery as helping visitors with a basic need, while supporting creativity and championing idle time.

Vinyl signage in the windows of the ODD Gallery in Dawson City, a community of some 1,500 people in central Yukon, lists the laundry’s offerings – everything from mending and air drying to coffee and karaoke. While some services are mere fantasy, others are an integral part of the exhibition’s programming. Both artists share a commitment to community arts but Majcenic, who lives in Dawson City, led the outreach aspect of the show, on view until June 22.

Naturally, My Beautiful Laundry includes washing machines. There are also unlabelled silkscreen prints by Vancouver-based Canto that incorporate text, such as “Cursory Cleaners” and “Full Dry.” 

Pastel-coloured sheets of paper that show empty clothing carts and bear the text “Laundry Dreams” hang on the wall behind the washing machines. The wall was painted green especially for the exhibition, along with a striking evocation of magenta and white-striped wainscotting. 

In one corner, a neon sign sporting a green clothes hanger and the word “Cleaners” hangs above a futon couch. I sit on a quilt that says “Air Dry Disco” and investigate the vintage typewriter on the coffee table. Among the sheets of legal-sized paper in pastel tones, I find poems typed by previous visitors. I gently manoeuvre the machine to type something myself. I feel comforted as I take up paper and pen to make notes for this review, imagining that I’m waiting for my laundry. 

Summer tourism transforms Dawson City into a public quasi-theatre amid gold-rush-style false-fronted buildings. As visitors and locals tread the wooden sidewalks, daily life takes on a performative quality. The exhibition’s alchemy of laundry and creativity feels right at home.

Many young people come to Dawson to work the summer tourist trade. There used to be a “tent city” of seasonal migratory workers. People panning for gold, living in cabins and camping or touring in RVs come into town to do their laundry. While some will seek out art, more want showers and clean clothes.  

You have to pay attention to actually do your washing at the gallery. The vintage machines on offer, Old Starchie and lil’ Kim, are hooked up to hoses. The machines dance during their wash cycles, and if the hoses pop out of the draining bucket, the gallery floor may flood. While the Salad Spinner, another electrical appliance, will take some water out of your clothes, they need to be hung to dry. Racks and lines in the space offer that possibility. 

When I visited the gallery a second time, I was delighted to find a sweater, a sheet, a washcloth and a bra drying in the space. In the gallery context, I experienced them as colour and form – sculptural objects. Waiting for clothes to dry implicates both participants and viewers in idle time. When we find ourselves there, in such spaciousness, poetry can happen.

Lately, some artist-run centres have been questioning their role. With decades of socially engaged programming under their belts, they have turned their attention to the economies of privilege the white box confers, wondering how to allow those critiques to shape their activities. My Beautiful Laundry provides one radical, yet gentle and generous approach. ■

Annie Canto and Jasmina Majcenic: My Beautiful Laundry at the ODD Gallery in Dawson City, Yukon, from May 19 to June 22, 2023.

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ODD Gallery-- Klondike Institute of Art & Culture

2nd Ave & Princess St (Bag 8000), Dawson City, Yukon Y0B 1G0

867-993-5005

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Tues to Sat 1 pm - 5 pm. Extended hours in certain seasons.