04 june 2024, Yves Joris
Polly Pollet, laundromat with playful references to the art canon
Those who think that Polly Pollet only creates meticulous ballpoint pen drawings need to think again. For the exhibition Polly Express – Pollet Wasserette, she transforms the functional and often dull space of a laundromat into a non-functional laundromat at Art Gallery De Wael 15. In doing so, she is following the tradition of artists who use everyday objects and spaces to inspire deeper artistic and philosophical reflections.
I can’t recall where I first encountered the installation Autorijschool Z by Guillaume Bijl. In a fictional pamphlet from 1979, he writes that the government has decided that art has become socially irrelevant and that art spaces should be converted into places for public benefit. For Bijl, it turned into a driving school. I don’t know if Pollet was inspired by this work, but her recent exhibition certainly carries echoes of Bijl’s installation art.
Polly Pollet, A Forgetful Faith, 2024, Art Gallery De Wael 15
Poetic reinterpretation of the laundromat
To most people, a laundromat is not a place where they spend more time than necessary, even though it usually smells of the freshest whites. But Polly Pollet finds inspiration in this space. During the exhibition Polly Express – Pollet Wasserette, she transforms Gallery De Wael 15 into a reinvented laundromat, giving visitors a humorous and surprising perspective on a place that normally receives little attention.
On entering the exhibition, visitors are greeted by a world of washing tablets and softeners, buzzing machines and poetically-cryptic washing instructions. Pollet emphasises the unique visual language and rules inherent to the laundromat. She explains, “Where others see monotony, I see opportunity. True inspiration often comes from the overlooked spaces and moments. A laundromat is one such space – a place of waiting. During the quiet moments you spend there, it can serve as a canvas for artistic expression. It’s in those moments that I find the space to reflect and create. After all, art is a kind of alchemy of perception, a twist that transforms the ordinary and translates it into visual poetry.”
Polly Pollet, Multiple Polly Express, 2024, Art Gallery De Wael 15
Pollet’s current exhibition is a continuation of her deep exploration of everyday spaces that, while playing an undeniable role in our lives, rarely penetrate our conscious awareness. In her earlier work, Polly Express – Into the Night, she reinterpreted the atmosphere of a Brussels night shop. The artwork there dissected the complex relationship between mass consumption and our hidden desires.
With Pollet Wasserette, she shifts her gaze to the colourful packaging of detergents, the hypnotic rhythm of washing machines and the quiet time people spend in the laundromat. The exhibition is a symphony of playful colours and cyclical patterns, a dialogue between the everyday and sublime. The result is an artistic experience that invites the viewer to both playful introspection and deep contemplation. Here, serious reflection and light-hearted artistic joy merge in a harmonious dance, touching the soul and enlightening the mind.
Polly Pollet, Splendid, 2024, Art Gallery De Wael 15
Pollet’s current exhibition is part of a rich tradition of artists who transform everyday spaces and objects to invite the viewer to engage in a deeper understanding of the banal and sublime. Just as the previously mentioned Guillaume Bijl explores the boundary between art and reality by transforming art galleries into everyday spaces such as a driving school or supermarket, Pollet does so by using a laundromat as her subject. In this way, both reflect on our daily routines, a concept that recurs in Pollet’s exhibition, where the colourful packaging of washing products and rhythmic patterns of washing machines are given a new, contemplative dimension.
But other names also come to mind as I stroll through the gallery. The most obvious are, of course, Andy Warhol’s Brillo boxes. The difference is that Pollet’s soap variations contain a (sometimes hidden) playful reference, while Warhol does nothing more than reflect reality. Tracy Emin’s use of everyday objects and spaces to explore personal and emotional narratives, as in her work My Bed, also finds an echo in Pollet’s approach. While Emin transforms her bed and personal belongings into an artwork that reveals the intimate aspects of her life, Pollet invites the viewer to reconsider the time and space of the laundromat – a place of daily activity – and view it as a source of artistic and emotional significance.
By executing them on a monumental scale, Claes Oldenburg’s playful reinterpretations of everyday objects find their parallel in Pollet’s playful approach to the ordinary. While Pollet does not use scale enlargement like Oldenburg, she shares his ability to transform and elevate the everyday to something extraordinary. The colourful packaging of washing products and cyclical patterns of washing machines in her work offer a new appreciation for these everyday objects and their aesthetic qualities.
Urs Fischer’s use of alienation and destruction to reveal hidden layers of meaning in everyday objects, such as in his work Untitled (2008), has similarities with Pollet’s methods. Fischer’s melting wax sculptures emphasise the transience and changeability of the ordinary, while Pollet, by using the laundromat as her canvas, exposes the cyclical nature of time and routines of daily life. Both artists show the poetry in the everyday and deeper layers of meaning that lie within.
Polly Pollet, Middle Jacket, 2024, Art Gallery De Wael 15
The everyday as a source of information
By placing her work within the context of this tradition, Pollet emphasises the power of the everyday as a source of artistic inspiration and deeper reflection. Her exhibition is not only a playful and contemplative experience, but also contributes to a broader dialogue within the art world about the meaning and beauty of the everyday.
Pollet Wasserette fits within a broader tradition of artists who reinterpret and transform the everyday. Like Guillaume Bijl, Pollet explores the boundary between art and reality, elevating the everyday space of a laundromat to a place of artistic exploration. Like Tracy Emin and Urs Fischer, she brings out the personal and poetic aspects of the ordinary, and like Claes Oldenburg, does so with a playful and visual flair. These artists invite us to view our daily environment with new eyes and discover the hidden beauty and meaning in the most ordinary moments of our lives. A beautiful place to spend time.
Polly Pollet Herverdeling van herinnering - Aluminium Paradise - Blue, 2024, Art Gallery De Wael 15
