Groundfloor Gallery, Sydney, Australia 2006 All Images © 2006 Amanda Dumas-Hernandez
- FLYING WHITE TRASH (20' x 6' x 11' Trash bags, string, Budweiser)
- CLEAN THOUGHTS FOR HUGH HEFNER (11" X 8.5" X 11" Carved Ivory Soap
- WASHING HANDS OF IT (120" x 30" Installed 20" x 30" each photo panel)
- IVORY TOWER (24" x 7" x 7" Slip cast porcelain bars of Ivory Soap)
- CLEAN THOUGHTS FOR DIRTY MINDS (12" X 12" Digital prints)
The idea of a “Clean Thought” is something that is probably different for each individual person depending greatly on their upbringing and belief systems. Conventional ideas of purity and beauty, as well as, ideals of majestic things and their fragility are part of the paradoxical nature of this recent body of work. I love the absurdity of making something beautiful or intriguing out of something that should be common place or banal and creating an intrinsic meaning from the material, as in the case of my Ivory Soap pieces made of porcelain . Ivory soap has been an icon in American culture for over one hundred years. It is noted to be “99-44/100% Pure” which pretty much says it all...analogous to most all things considered “pure”. The smell of Ivory soap evokes memories of childhood and all things clean and good, plus the whimsical fact that it also floats. Ironically, porn star Marilynn Chambers was once in an Ivory Soap advertisement holding a baby. I found Ivory Soap to be a perfect building material, especially for an “Ivory Tower.”
I began with the concept of “Clean Thoughts”. In my mind, I have played around with all kinds of ridiculous things such as how to arrive at a “Clean Thought”. The most interesting ideas that I attained were “washing one’s brain” and “washing one’s mouth out with soap,” both very relevant to the current political climate in the world today. Both concepts leave behind a sterility of thought and a bad taste in one's mouth, and they both can have either a funny or horrifying visual. I find comic things to be most often very profound and a way to speak of improper things and truths. I contribute the comic element of my work to my unconventional upbringing in the rural Southern United States, where eccentricity of character and poking fun at inappropriate things was appreciated. I have always tended to rebel against imposed homogeneity. If all bacteria and dirt was eradicated from the earth and everyone was forced to have only the same “Clean Thoughts”...needless to say all life would cease to exist.
Copyright Notice: All photographs © Amanda Dumas-Hernandez. All rights reserved. No images may be reproduced, distributed, exhibited, or used in any form without the artist's prior written permission.
