My fixation with all things related to soap powder continued while at the Royal College of Art in 1986 when Swatch set a student competition for all departments to create something based on the theme of โtime and motionโ. Like many students back in the day I spent a couple of hours each week at a local launderette washing and drying my clothes. I would sit mesmerically watching the clothes spin and tumble for their allotted time. This I thought was pure time and motion. So I had the slightly bonkers concept of building the corner of a launderette. I phoned a washing machine manufacture and talked them into lending me a brand new machine in the classic orange of British launderettes and then built around it in great detail. I pinched a couple of signs from my local launderette and even glued a fag end to the linoleum floor. To my surprise the final piece won a ยฃ500 prize and was then to be included in the winners exhibition at the Henry Moore Gallery within the RCA. I pushed the concept a little further and wanted to plumb in the machine and allow students to bring in their washing and do it in the gallery. Unfortunately the powers that be within the college were having none of it, even though I pushed and pushed for the idea.
Years later I returned to the RCA to work on a project for the college and while chatting to a student I discovered that there was an orange launderette washing machine tucked away in the corner of the basement. It had obviously never been picked up by the kind company who lent it to me. I wonder if itโs still there? #soap#powder#launderette#wash@rcavisualcomm@swatch#art