- Venue
- n/a
- Location
- London
Marmalade and Bumwipes is an artists book of found shopping lists made by Cathy Streeter. When I took the book out of its envelope my first impressions was that it looked like an university catalogue. I love the catchy title which instantly holds your attention. The way it is laid out and printed seems to intentionally give each scrappy shopping list a sense of space and worthiness. There is something quite endearing about seeing scrawly writing across a hurriedly torn off piece of paper, from an edge of an envelope to notepad paper, and half crossed out lists that is so reminiscent of your own habits. I couldn't help but feel though that I would have have been much more excited leafing through a bound copy of the original list papers themselves, feeling the scrunched-up-ness and textures of the different paper qualities and sizes. This would have probably made it more labour intensive and 'exclusive' but the presentation did make it feel more like a documentation. Artists like Sean Tejaratchi for example spends years collecting all sorts of memorabilia and paraphernalia of interest and then presents them in meticulously and beautifully executed zines called Craphound. The result of these become something else and look like artworks themselves.
It is interesting that I felt like I was invading someone's privacy because of these lists throwaway-ness, not intended for other peoples' eyes. But it is this that gives it its' intimacy and honesty too. I was also intrigued to see that some of the lists were so lengthy and specific. In Streeter's statement she informs that she is interested in the anthropological and archaelogical evidence of someone's life. And you do wonder what these lists do tell you about the people who wrote them. They remind me of exercises they like to do in teenage music and girlie magazines. Where they would get a celebrity to write the answers to a few questions, and 'specialists' would come and interpret what the handwriting revealed about each person. But what do these things as a whole tell us about the people behind them. You can read as much you want into them but I mean what could one read from a list that has more junk food than fruit – unhealthy…? or more cleaning products than food – obsessively clean…? I guest it's also just fun to imagine.
Although I like the art of collecting and documenting banal things, I do feel this publication is not as strong as some of the ones that I have seen of this 'genre'. But I wonder if it's more a part of the enquires Streeter is interested in within her work rather than a piece of work in itself.
