To be clean, means to be unadulterated, refined. It means to be pure. The idealized tiled bathroom is not white because it helps to keep track of grime, but because it indicates a figurative shift into a space of complete control. Control is the very essence of cleansing practices as cleaning seeks to exert force over an external and mostly invisible chaos i.
Towards the bottom of the painting, the legs of the subject are represented in outline, filled with the same white of the shower basin as if to suggest the two are no longer separate.
By rendering the shower curtain and bathroom in black, this work contests the whiteness traditionally ascribed to the location as subject and object seem to seep into one another. In addition to race, the shower speaks to class.
The assumption is that if you shower in the morning, you work a desk job and, it would be inferred, are paid more than those who shower in the evening after working some form of manual labor. Class is lathered into more than our hygienic protocol; it is layered into our products. For example, soap, an ancient invention, highlights social inequality in the bathroom. It took until the early years of WWI for scientists to derive cleaning solutions that were not based on animal or vegetable fat.
These new solutions were based on petroleum byproducts and are known today as detergents. Unfortunately, many detergents are carcinogenic.
As much awareness has grown around the adverse effects of these solutions, those who can afford to turn to natural products which on average are ten times more expensive than generic brands. When installed, the work reads as a portrait that exposes its subject not by figuration, but by product selection. This in turn allows for one to infer not merely class but also taste. For example, Dr. The open concept shower is essentially only identifiable by showerhead and drain otherwise the space has little differentiation between the other bathroom areas.
Without structural confinement, the shower is proposed as an immersive, free experience. Olivia Erlanger is an artist and writer based in Los Angeles. Puppies Puppies and Ken Kagami, France Courtesy Balice Hertling. One of the earliest known baths originates from the Indus Valley Civilisation — a technologically advanced ancient civilisation that was spread across what is now modern day Pakistan.
It was not unusual for people to cleanse themselves before entering a sacred area. Baths are recorded as part of village or town life throughout this period, with a split between steam baths in Europe and America, and cold baths in Asia. It was common for communal baths to be built in a separate area from the living quarters of a village — by doing this people believed they were preventing evil spirits from entering the domestic quarters.
Not all ancient baths were in the style of large pools that are often associated with the Roman baths. The first surviving bathtub dates back to B. C and hails from the Palace of Knossos in Crete. The most interesting thing about this tub is not only the similarity with the baths of today, but also the way in which the plumbing works surrounding it. Both the Romans and Greeks recognised the value of bathing as part of their lifestyles.
Palaces have been uncovered throughout Greece with areas that are dedicated to bathing, spaces with clay bathtubs and sophisticated drainage systems.
The Roman attitude towards baths and bathing is well documented, they constructed large purpose-built thermal baths, which marks not only an important social development but provided a public source of relaxation and rejuvenation. It was a place where people could meet to discuss the matters of the day and enjoy entertainment.
During this period a distinction was made between private and public baths, many wealthy families had their own thermal bath and bathroom in their home.
They also made use of the public baths, which shows the value they had as a public institution. Imports from throughout the world allowed the Roman citizens to enjoy ointments, incense, combs and mirrors. Some resources suggest that bathing declined following the collapse of the Roman Empire, but this is not completely accurate — it was actually the Middle Ages that saw the beginning of soap production — proof that bathing was definitely not uncommon. It was only after the Renaissance that bathing declined; water was actually feared as a carrier of disease, and so sweat baths and heavy perfumes were preferred.
In the Middle Ages, many towns actually had bathhouses — this is where people could pay to have a bath. Other people simply made do with wooden tubs in their bedrooms.
During this time, there was an important soap making industry in England, with many people making their own soap at home. In Englishman William Feetham patented the first mechanical shower. Prior to the s the majority of shower designs were rather like having a pail of water tipped over you from a height, but by the s the range of products were evolving in new and exciting directions. A rain shower also known as a spray bath, was a desirable fitting for modern, hygienic public baths and hospitals.
Canopy showers or canopy baths were produced by a number of manufacturers and varied from the simply functional to the highly ornate, with both options being the reserve of the very wealthy. These impressive shower bathtub combinations became the centrepiece of the room with some being up to seven feet high.
With many being ornately carved, highly polished woods or finely enamelled on the exterior; this iteration of the shower started to signify a move into the shower as not only functional but also designed to enhance the home setting. During this Victorian period of invention most showers were sold on pure functionality, heavily based on any associated health benefits.
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