Project I – She worked | birgitte aasen

S H E W O R K E D A L L D A Y

So modern, so appealing 2019 – Oil on panel

Roles 2017 – Video still from Digital video 1’35”

The Yellow Device 2019 (detail) – Oil on panel

NAPPY VALLEY

Housewives

and mothers in

range rovers,

parking

illegally

outside

the butcher’s

in SW11

at 11.15 am

The Arrangement 2015 – oil on panel

THE BIN

The bin wasn’t emptied last night. I saw the bin men arriving at 01.35am, and I heard them lifting the lid, probably checking the contents. But after that they just drove off. I didn’t hear the usual motor of the lorry when it empties bins. I wonder why they didn’t empty ours this time. Either there was not enough rubbish in the bin for them to bother, or there was another reason. There must be a reason. And if it’s not the former it must be the latter. I think it’s another reason. I think there was something in the bin that made the bin men not want to empty it. There must have been a particular object they didn’t want to take with them. I wonder what that object might be. It could be something someone had put there earlier without me knowing it. It could be a TV, or it could be a shopping trolley. Or maybe it’s a table. Or perhaps it is a sausage making machine. I think it must be a sausage making machine, because a sausage making machine is a strange thing which the bin men might not have wanted to take with them. If it’s not a sausage making machine it must be dead body. They would definitely not take a dead body. I AM SURE OF THAT

Pink Sink 2015 – oil on panel

The teaspoons 2016 – Air drying clay

She worked all day 2015 – oil on panel

SEVEN SHIRTS

She folded the linen. It was soft and clean and had a scent of passion fruit. The living room was tidy and the curtains were moving gently from the breeze outside. She’d done all the tasks she’d set herself to do this morning. In the afternoon she was going to have tea with a friend. She felt she deserved it after all this work. She was practically working all day most days. Cleaning, laundry, groceries, ordering things, dealing with contractors, and not the least managing their cook. And yes, then there were all the shirts. Seven shirts every week that needed ironing. She didn’t mind the actual ironing, but the fact that they were his shirts made her feel uncomfortable. She decided she would bring the matter up with her friend in the afternoon and ask her whether she thought it was reasonable to suggest to the husband that she could go to the launderette with the seven shirts and pay for having them washed and ironed.

Whilst sipping her delicate jasmine flower tea, her friend explained how she thought this launderette idea was a very selfish idea.