Simple Acts (1996)

The installation, Simple Acts, was created as response to an invitation to participate in a traveling exhibition titled, Objects of Personal Significance. Simple Acts uses the domestic act of ironing as a metaphor women seeking order out chaos. Although the act of ironing is somewhat anachronistic, it is used here to emphasize that women are still asked to meet certain, narrowly defined, standards of personal appearance and remain, responsible for constructing the image or identity of the family. 

The installation is comprised of four full-size wooden identical ironing boards that radiate out in four directions. On the boards, sit four iron-cast irons each with a word, in reverse. cast into the face. The words are in reverse so that when the irons are heated and burned into the muslin covers of the boards, they spell the words appearance, order, labor, and care. The power cord connected to each iron, is a tubular braid of synthetic hair that terminates with a splayed-out fan of hair on the floor.