The BLUE PRINT

The Blue Print (2020) investigates Marco Frascari’s “Pneumatic bathroom”, defined as a regenerative space with a spiritual aura. If the western bathroom is broadly seen as a place for cleansing rituals, which we rely on to hide and process “impurity” out of existence, this project transforms it into a metaphorical locus for the processing of emotions.

This work explores modes of representation of domestic bathrooms in relation to mental health and more specifically in relation to attachment theory. Secure attachment provides individuals with a clearer behavioral blueprint, a mental chart which can serve as a guide through emotional processing. Insecure attachment which arises from developmental psychological abuse tends to make this template unreliable or difficult to navigate. This can leave individuals with the task to re-design their own "template" in order to continue their healing.

Embodying the slow and laborious process of redesigning a new emotional blueprint, imprints are made by carefully pressing sheets of toilet paper against bathroom surfaces using a wet sponge. The paper is then left to air dry for two days, and minutiously peeled off the walls, tiles and sometimes beauty or care objects, keeping a fragile record of the cast surface’s details. The imprints retain the permeability to their environment characteristic of the toilet paper they are made of, and speak to the ephemeral and ever-changing nature of conscious memory. How might the new blueprint survive the test of time against oppressive social ideologies?

The Blue Print (2020) delves into the oneiric implications of bathroom architecture and design within colonial and neo-liberal ideologies, especially in regards to Mary Douglas’ argument that societal rules around purity often come hand to hand with a violent striving for establishing moral order. The imprints are hung on a structure made from iron pipes. Activated with water, the pipes eventually start dripping rusty water, soaking and colouring the paper imprints, blurring their detailed surface until they eventually drop to the ground.