Laundry Baskets. No Retention, 2020

Starting with the reproduction of a complete plastic laundry hamper, the three pieces emerge as fragments of a reality that is in a constant state of collapse and subsequent repair. The largest work, "Room", suggests a homemade animal trap ready to catch its victim, while its white interior presents a cozy nook complete with children’s doodles scrawled on its walls - drawings made by the artist’s 5-year-old daughter- suggesting an intimate place for freedom and play. "Handle", a gaping mouth displaying its teeth, consists of the half-broken handle of the basket, precariously balanced atop a column of sponges reminiscent of the repetitive and tedious labor implied in daily life. "Corner" is a corner section of the basket that in order to remain upright has to tenaciously wrap around a heavy piece of lumber by a rope made out of t-shirts’ collars. Flaunting what’s normally hidden, the care instruction and brand labels take the spotlight in an effort to bring together privacy and care with politics and consumerism, a prevailing issue underlaying most of Partegàs’s works. Turning the anonymity and powerlessness of ordinary objects on their heads, these works combine aggressiveness and destruction with a sense of sensuality and care, inviting us to interrogate our established convictions of safety and progress.


 

Room, 2020
Cardboard, cotton fabric, wood glue, Fast-Maché, acrylic paint, pencil, rope, wood stick, plywood
60” X 72” X 52”
(drawings by Djuna Partegàs Pascher)
Room, 2020
Cardboard, cotton fabric, wood glue, Fast-Maché, acrylic paint, pencil, rope, wood stick, plywood
60” X 72” X 52”
(drawings by Djuna Partegàs Pascher)
Room (Baskets. No Retention), 2020
Cardboard, cotton fabric, wood glue, Fast-Maché, acrylic paint, pencil, rope, wood stick, plywood
60” X 72” X 52”
(drawings by Djuna Partegàs Pascher)
Room, 2020
Cardboard, cotton fabric, wood glue, Fast-Maché, acrylic paint, pencil, rope, wood stick, plywood
60” X 72” X 52”
(drawings by Djuna Partegàs Pascher)

 

Handle, 2020
Cardboard, cotton fabric, wood glue, Fast-Maché, acrylic paint, papercrete, bricks, sponges
31” X 58” X 15”
Handle, 2020
Cardboard, cotton fabric, wood glue, Fast-Maché, acrylic paint, papercrete, bricks, sponges
31” X 58” X 15”
Handle, 2020
Cardboard, cotton fabric, wood glue, Fast-Maché, acrylic paint, papercrete, bricks, sponges
31” X 58” X 15”
Corner, 2020
Cardboard, cotton fabric, wood glue, Fast-Maché, acrylic paint, plywood, t-shirts, clothing labels
43” X 57” X 17”
Corner, 2020
Cardboard, cotton fabric, wood glue, Fast-Maché, acrylic paint, plywood, t-shirts, clothing labels
43” X 57” X 17”
Corner, 2020
Cardboard, cotton fabric, wood glue, Fast-Maché, acrylic paint, plywood, t-shirts, clothing labels
43” X 57” X 17”
“No Retention” exhibition at Pure Joy, Marfa TX