Lila Kools

The multidisciplinary installation Instruments of the Everyday aims to distil repetitive motion, seen in my own daily life through a feminine lens, among broader unanimous ideals of the everyday. Repetitive and monotonous movement is captured in the tile clad scene of the bathroom, with an isolated feminine body moving in and around the shower. The faceless, depersonalised, bodily instrument shifts between viewers interpretation but the context of the domestic interior remains omnipotent, allowing greater malleability of the imagery. This notion, realised in the wood-block prints, is found in the physical process of carving away the wooden panels to reveal the figurative imagery, linking to the monotony of the subject matter itself and further distilling the conceptual grounding of the work under a lens of monotony in the domestic sphere. The handbuilt embroidered ceramic vessels that sit among the prints, are physically imbedded with connotations of domestic labour through the practice of embroidering the ceramic surface. The additions of hand-crocheted lace frames that adorn the print and ceramic works help situate the work in the context of the feminine interior, although these additions actively romanticise the domestic subject, they further link to domestic traditions of lace adorning undergarments as well as ornate linen. Instruments of the Everyday aims to distil repetition innate to modernity, while gaining a greater appreciation of the mundanity of the everyday.