Wash Day 1980

Editor: So, here we have "Wash Day" painted by Clementine Hunter in 1980. It feels...unburdened. A simple scene with vibrant colours, depicting women doing laundry. It’s charming. What strikes you most about this work? Curator: Oh, darling, "unburdened" is a lovely word. I see the legacy of labour, softened by memory and love. Look at the composition – almost dreamlike, isn't it? It reminds me of my own grandmother's stories – washing became a social event, didn't it? And the colours! They pop, almost singing. But behind this childlike exterior lies the reality of hard work – Hunter celebrating it as women often did, when working together made such drudgery seem like nothing at all! What do you feel the figures tell us? Editor: I hadn't thought about the singing colours as celebratory of labor. The figures seem stylized and very direct—there isn't much detail on them, almost like symbols instead of portraits. Do you think it speaks to everyone, or mainly people with shared experiences? Curator: Perhaps both. The symbols do allow it to transcend into universality. After all, everyone has to wash. It brings me to thoughts of collective memory. Each of us has stories about labour, tradition, or simple things elevated to importance—but if they don't then we're also witnessing something that makes our perspective shift a bit, maybe making us see things we have always taken for granted! But in the simplicity there’s almost like... truth that lingers long after the painting is looked away from. Makes me want to run outside. Do you feel like running outside too? Editor: I definitely see that now, thanks for pointing out the... the levity within labor! I thought the image was simply…naive. Curator: Precisely, isn’t that wonderful how much there is to see in the naive! I, myself, will have to go home today and perhaps make art about doing my own laundry.