Why is this Charlotte artist ‘Airing Out the Dirty Laundry’? To tell stories.
Women gather in Andrea Downs’ living room for “Laundry Day.” But it’s not what you think – no one is washing or folding clothes.
They’re using a variety of materials – paint, paper, textiles, an article of clothing – to tell a story. Later, their stories are strung together on a clothesline for display.
Downs, a middle and high school art teacher at Providence Day School, left the Women’s March in 2017 feeling connected to other women and empowered to make changes. She wanted to do something that would carry the good from that day into the future.
Using her talents as an artist, she made a piece of art that would be the first of what is now known as “Airing Out the ‘Dirty’ Laundry L.L.C.,” a community art movement.
Taking back power
“I was really hung up, after the Women’s March, by all the horrible things our now president said about women over time,” Downs said.
Downs, 42, found a website cataloging comments about women from the 1970s to the present day made by President Donald Trump. She wrote them all down, multiple times, and sewed a piece of handmade paper over the top of the words.
“In my head and symbolically, I was transforming his hate into something beautiful,” Downs said. “That was the point. And I was airing it out, letting that breathe, taking the power back. Taking those words and making them into something different. And making them beautiful visually.”
Downs began to wonder how other women would react if she asked them to participate in a project where they could air their stories: Would it be a healing experience? Could it connect us in ways we don’t usually connect?
In 2018, she took a chance, and invited women into her home to provide space and materials to gather, talk, listen and create.
Shared experience
Downs organizes “Laundry Days” throughout Charlotte. Participants bring a piece of clothing, a textile, or photo. Downs provides everything else. The workshops are safe places for women to share experiences through visual storytelling.
Since the first “Laundry Day,” Downs has hosted or co-hosted 30 workshops across Charlotte with more in the planning. Six others took place in Massachusetts, Michigan and Ohio.
Women from California, Michigan, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina have participated by creating pieces and sending them in the mail, Downs said.
Workshops are free and scheduled for two hours, but most last four to five. The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, Levine Museum of the New South, Charlotte Center for the Literary Arts, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library and Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture have all hosted Laundry Days.
A platform for all
Rosalia Torres-Weiner attended a workshop in Downs’ family room. She only observed, but later, at home, she started a piece with her 28-year-old daughter to express the generations of abuse by men aimed at the women in her family.
Torres-Weiner believes the program will open conversations about issues important to women, raise awareness and educate the community. She hopes to host a Laundry Day in Spanish to give Latinas the opportunity to participate.
“Andrea is giving us that platform to tell those stories,” Torres-Weiner said. “It’s a place that you feel safe.”
Collaboration
“Airing Out the ‘Dirty’ Laundry” receives funding from a variety of places. Tim Miner and Matt Olin with Charlotte is Creative and Creative Mornings awarded a $250 HUG Grant to fund the first Laundry Day on Feb. 6, 2018.
“That award funded materials for the first two Laundry Days that happened in my family room and literally was the spark of support that was so unexpected and needed at the very beginning,” Downs said. “The friendships and connections that have come as a result of my connection to Charlotte is Creative are incredibly meaningful to me and the continuation of this work.”
Artwork from Laundry Days is collected and displayed on clotheslines at various events throughout the city, including the last two BOOM Festivals and UNC Charlotte’s Popp Martin Student Union Art Gallery.
The largest installation, more than 400 pieces from past Laundry Days, will be displayed June 19-Aug. 9 at Mint Museum Uptown in its Level 5 Expansion Space. The opening reception is 6-9 p.m June 19.
“While Laundry Days are extremely important in terms of creating space for women to share, create, connect, listen and feel heard,” Downs said, “the joining together of stories on clotheslines in installations and the sharing of their stories is just as important. Each story has a top layer and is meant to be lifted as an invitation to engage and connect with the story underneath.
“The intention is to invite curiosity to reveal and unveil each woman’s story and it also symbolically acts as a protective layer to each story.”
Read and relate
Performance artist and inspirational speaker, Nikki Eason has been involved with “Airing Out the ‘Dirty’ Laundry” ever since she saw an installation at SouthEnd ARTS – a clothesline wrapped around a Charlotte trolley. At first, she was confused by the clothes hanging in the Charlotte Trolley Powerhouse. Then she realized they were individual stories.
“I got captivated immediately by one of the articles of clothing and the story behind it,” Eason said. “It’s a way to vent. It’s a therapeutic way of releasing some of the things you may not feel super comfortable about.”
At her first Laundry Day, Eason brought a blazer to Downs’ home – she wanted it to be the centerpiece for her story. Because Eason embraces men’s clothing, people often mistake her for a man, she said.
She wrote messages to herself and placed them inside the blazer – “It’s OK to be you,” “You were born to be you,” “You’re different, what makes you different are your superpowers.”
“My story may help someone,” Eason said. “I get a chance to release my story in a comfortable space, and there’s the possibility that someone else is going through the same thing as me. And I never know who may see it and I never know who will read it and relate to it.”
Attend a ‘Laundry Day’
What: Participate in a workshop with Charlotte artist Andrea Downs and Krystle Baller of Pachyderm Music Lab. Make a piece of visual art that tells your story.
When: 2-4 p.m. May 2 (Depending on whether there are still cornoavirus-related restrictions in place.)
Where: Pachyderm Music Lab, 423 E. 22nd St., Charlotte
Cost: Free
Details: airingoutthedirtylaundry.com or pachydermmusiclab.com
This story is part of an Observer underwriting project with the Thrive Campaign for the Arts, supporting arts journalism in Charlotte.
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This story was originally published March 24, 2020 at 4:22 PM.