In some jobs, people get really dirty. Clothes bear the brunt of this. Consider the surgeon, the mechanic, the cook, the farmer - at the end of the day the work clothes bear a wordless record of their activities. It is a document of the interface between human and environment written in stains, spills, rips and burns.
I propose that an exhibit be made of these clothes. Each would be pressed flat and exhibited in a flat plexiglass case, mounted in the center of the floor so one could walk around and see all sides. There would be no mannekin to distract. A text tent at the base would state the job done and a little about what happened to produce what is displayed. Perhaps a small photo of the worker in his or her clothes would be there too.-- bungston, Aug 04 2006 Why not use the invisible mannequins? Invisible_20Dummies [fridge duck, Aug 05 2006] I'm thinking if you did this as art, the Tate would buy it and you would be set for life.-- DrCurry, Aug 04 2006 Just pick your dirty clothes up off the floor and stop whining.-- Galbinus_Caeli, Aug 04 2006 I think a nearby before sample would make the effect even more striking. Bun from me. finally a place to send some of the outfits I had when I ran the septic Truck.-- jhomrighaus, Aug 04 2006 I work at a company that prints wallpaper and the guys have some clothes that they put on almost every day while working. The ones that mix the colors and the printers get splashed all over. They look like a line of Jackson Pollock suits. +-- xandram, Aug 04 2006 The painters would be great. How could I have forgotten painters?-- bungston, Aug 04 2006 I wish I'd photographed the most extreme of the variety of extremely dirty workers I've seen over the years. Oh, the things an automobile can do to a person.-- normzone, Aug 05 2006 The clothes that I wore in the fiberglass boat factory probably haven't started to break down yet. But they'd never be pressed flat.-- baconbrain, Aug 05 2006 The computer geek would be the shirt with the ink stain on the pocket... no that's the old engineering geek... let me see... belt loops torn out by the weight of 2 cell phones, a PDA and a pager? [+]-- James Newton, Aug 07 2006 I've got a feeling I've seen something like this, in the form of sad body-fluid stains on old military uniforms in a war museum - but I wouldn't swear to it, and even if I did see it, it's not as general as this idea... which, by the way, I like [+]-- pertinax, Aug 08 2006 I'm dreading the reply, but [UnaBubba], what's a "hogger"?-- Frankx, Aug 08 2006 Ditch the plexiglass, I want to *smell* these clothes.-- calum, Aug 08 2006 [Brau], for your edification, I present the OED on "interface"
A means or place of interaction between two systems, organizations, etc.; a meeting-point or common ground between two parties, systems, or disciplines; also, interaction, liaison, dialogue.-- bungston, Aug 08 2006 Ugn.
I just know that the hot dogs I buy are nothin but lips. Yep, nothin but lips.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Aug 09 2006 And yet again my decision to become vegetarian is validated.
So what do they use the oink for?-- Galbinus_Caeli, Aug 09 2006 I got some grass fed New Zealand beef ribs once. I was sure they had slipped me heart, or perhaps liver.-- bungston, Aug 09 2006 If the taste difference between organ meats and skeletal muscle is a matter of intensity then yes, it was intensity.-- bungston, Aug 09 2006 Where did you get these NZ beef ribs [bungston]?-- methinksnot, Aug 09 2006 New Zealand, of course.
[bungston] What about nude models?-- DesertFox, Aug 10 2006 I don't think they taste like beef liver. But I may be wrong. Perhaps we could ask [benfrost].-- pertinax, Aug 11 2006 Everything tastes just like chicken to Benny.-- methinksnot, Aug 11 2006 There is a visual artist in California who uses white bed sheets in this manner. She hangs them in different positions (with different "seam stresses") to show the struggles of immigrant women.
Your idea could have a similar application in modern art.
Interesting.-- janbest, Jun 06 2007 The investement banker - booze, smoke, lipstick-- shinobi, Jun 06 2007 Yay! Like this lots. I'm always sad to wash my dig work clothes. Lots of ground-in mud, hand-wipe marks, red spray paint, black + white marker test patches, sweat-salt tide marks, assorted foodstuff-smearings and two mysteriously clean patches on the knees (knee pads). I always think, Hey! I spent ages getting them like that.
Big +-- squeak, Jun 06 2007 Wow, reading the annos, I come into an idea about work clothes and get an education about the entire cow, and how and what about what come from where and goes to where. Amazing.
Concerning the original idea: What about the protitutes? Do they get a display?-- twitch, Jun 09 2007 I think they can be in the same display case... knowing their history.-- twitch, Jun 09 2007 random, halfbakery