Lyrene Kühn-Botma

Wringing and Scrubbing: a girl should know how to wring a rag

Wringing and Scrubbing, terms associated with cleaning, erasing, controlling, and concealing. In this two-panel series, small acts of rebellion amid negotiating loss and abandonment are investigated. In the top panel one can see a rag being wrung, while the bottom panel seems completely scrubbed and smeared with ink. Drawing tools were used, similar to a rag, in this series of Lithographs. Thus, the attempted ‘cleaning’ of the lithography stone resulted in marks and strokes being left behind instead. A sort of evidence at an attempted concealment or desperate attempt to wipe away. The marks seem almost childlike, alluding to the overwhelming and quick acts of panic during childhood when an accident occurs, or a mess is made. The crude attempt of a child to cover or clean something that is hardly ever successful. Signs of an accident or apparent wrongdoing always lingers for others to find. However, there are still details that are indeed concealed, erased, overlooked, and neglected.