More Wages for Housework Art!

In September, I attended part of an online feminist art history conference – it was also in person at American University in D.C., but I did the online thing. There was a very cool presentation about a group of women artists in the ’70s who did a series of performances in actual laundromats! While doing their laundry! (I think.) and there were programs given out at the events and photographic documentation. The laundromats chosen – it was a series of performances – were in the neighborhoods where the artists actually lived, worked and washed their clothes.

It was super cool to learn about and also made me think, “Shoot, this is so frustrating, we keep making art about this and nothing changes.” and, “No more art about housework, I’m stopping.”

Ha ha. Just kidding. I made more.

Wages for Housework Poster from the 1970s printed as a cyanotype in a textile collage by Elaine Luther.

This is part of my scroll series. It’s a front and a back, no batting, no quilting stitches. I forgot to include hanging hoops, so this will have to be hung some other way.  This is a quick photo I took, with this on top of whatever else was on my table, so the edges look wonky, but they aren’t really.

The central flyer is a real flyer from the 1970s, it’s been reprinted in books, including probably both books called Wages for Housework. I like the one by Louise Toupin both, it’s more accurate and scholarly.

The pieced bits of fabrics I bought like that – pre-sewn into strips – from a creative reuse store, of course, where else do I buy anything? I shared this artwork in an online group I’m in and someone said, “Why that fabric?” They didn’t mean to sound judgmental, I’m sure, and also, maybe it accidentally came across that way? Like, just a little bit, “What the heck were you thinking?” Other group members leapt to my defense, which was sweet, and also, the question made me think about it. Yes, why?

A big part of my studio practice is trusting myself. Trusting that I don’t have to know why in the moment, I can figure it out later. Figure out why I chose that fabric, or why I made that thing. As we had that discussion in the comments, I realized that that fabric is probably from the early 2000s that pink and green and bits of brown – it just screams early 2000s, doesn’t it? A friend’s wedding colors were pink and brown around that time. That’s also back when I had little kids, peak mothering and housework time. (Lots of different phases of mothering are peak mothering, in various ways…)

This one is in contrast to the all blue ones I’ve made so far in the series, which are mostly cyanotype plus blue batiks.

Making of Wages for Housework Flyer Scroll; by Elaine Luther 2025.

I’ll be doing more with this flyer, if you follow my work, you know I not infrequently print a quote more than once, in different ways.