Dust Reversals - Teresa Stoppani

In this weeks lecture, Teresa Stoppani gave a talk about Dust as a medium. Her lecture was titled, ‘Dust Reversals – dusting, vacuum cleaners, (war) machines and the disappearance of the interior.’

First she began to talk about dust as literal, in that it was a previously intact object that has now been broken into fragments and disassembled into what are now small particles of dust. But also the metaphorical concept of dust.  Dust can be a way of defining the interior and exterior of a building and has a surprising way of reflecting society.

The Greek mythology of Diana portrayed her as a passive women standing in the room, but process the dust in a revolutionary way. Sophocles always depicted Diana in interiors and caves, where she has been imprisoned by her father because he beloved that he would be killed by his own grandchildren, so tried to prevent that happening.  As the myth goes, Diana is then showered in a cloud of golden dust and became pregnant. Eventually her children kill her father, and Diana later became pregnant again and was locked up again and remains a passive and exasperated and the interior domestic space becomes her prison. Diana was a symbol of chastity and the golden cloud of dust, was in fact sperm.

There were many depictions of Diana, which were painted over time. In 1530 she was depicted in a similar way and the gold dust hung above her ready to fall into her lap and pregnant her. Titian painted two versions of Diana. In the first the gold dust is beginning to fall onto Diana and cupid is present in the image, dodging the dust as it falls onto Diana. In the second painting he cupid was replaced by a maid – possibly to show the first time she was lock up in a cave and the second was in a domestic situation hence the maid. In 1621, Artemisia Gentileschi painted a version as well continuing in a similar fashion.

In 1908 the depiction of Diana began to change. She changed from an icon of chastity, into a luxury prostitute and the dust changed from sperm, into a currency of exchange – reflecting the modern 20^th centenary and what has happening socially.

Attitudes towards dust changed over time during the early 20^th century in Paris. Europeans denoted the familiar and comphetable and suffocating interior and makes it obvious there the obsolete and forgotten spaces are. Dust as it settles and measures history, preserving and suggesting the duration of objects in society. Therefore when dust is removed there is a lot at risk that go well beyond the notions of cleaning. The idea of undoing something defies order and control, disturbance in order and reminder of the perusable nature threatening logistic and control.

Women became in charge of making dust disappear and the vacuum became a physical extension of the body. Dusting becomes more recognized and removed from the body. As we get rid of the dirt, and eventually the body, cleaned up dust can becomes visible again and displayed if controlled and leading to the exhibition of the removed dust.

In 1956 a British artist said ‘just what is it that makes a home today different and appealing’ a collage of a 1950’s living room depicting the lady of the house naked and seductive in the corner of the room offering herself to the almost nude man while he is not interested. The disconnected couple are each living their own lives, while there is a small woman in red, plugged into a vacuumed cleaner at the top of the engulfing staircase, which is too big for her, the domestic interior disused dust. The women of the house is also fragmented in way similar to dust itself, portrayed as herself, but also in the poster on the wall and TV – each showing a different female stereo type.

In 1980 Jeff Koons created an artwork with was old vacuumed cleaners in glass cabinets. Vacuumed cleaners are now the objects collecting dust, a poster for modern ideas.

In 1993 Dyson after 50 years of research James Dyson released a vacuumed that was “the first vacuum not using suction” and does not collect and hide. It no longer used a bag to collect the dust, but after it has collected it, the vacuumed would display the dust in a clear cylinder, and a range of powerful models followed.

Durand the 1970’s though to the 1990’s dust became fashionable again. In the 1998 series of photos it showed children living in undesirable environments that were dirty and dusty.