Flatshare, 2017
Vinyl stickers, plastic vacuum pipes, and lint from my neighbour's clothes.
Exhibited in What do we do now, now that we are happy? at Chalton Gallery, London, curated by Riet Timmerman.
Henry Hoover is a domestic and cultural icon in the UK; a friendly-faced vacuum cleaner who is part of the family. “Friends” turns the wall into a vacuum cleaner: nozzles feed in and out of the wall and become entangled with each other. This work considers Henry as an early example of the anthropomorphism of technology – something we now encounter in the friendly voices of Alexa and Cortana. Smart technologies are often given voices and faces, gaining our trust as they spy on us and collect data. Shown in this way, Henry becomes the friendly eyes on the wall that watch you at home. On the floor lies piles of lint, gathered from the shared dryers of the artist’s neighbors. This dust is a trace of intimacy and the formless by-product of lives lived at home.
Photos by Sam Greer.