‘Cleanaway’

DATE: 1995
MEDIA: plastic bin (120 x 80 x 120 cm); 50,000 cotton-wool buds; sound

A large plastic waste-bin emblazoned with the name ‘Cleanaway’ is filled with cotton-wool buds, a device used to clean the ears. Emanating from the bin is a soundtrack collected from the British Library’s National Life Story Collection, an oral history of people’s lived experiences. ‘Cleanaway’ rescues conversations and tales that otherwise would have been ‘binned’ as they were not deemed remarkable or worthy enough to hold as definitive history. The everyday use of the cotton-wool buds presents a pun on the idea of uncovering these conversations, no matter how banal.

Presented at
‘Post Script’, Lisson Gallery, London, 1995