Caraboo at Centre of Gravity:
Puritanical Botanicals

For the Centre of Gravity month-long takeover of the former Gardiner Haskins building, Caraboo Projects will be one of 60 artists, collectives and curators taking part. 

‘Puritanical Botanicals’ is a site responsive and interactive installation that playfully examines the act of hand washing and the potential to remove not only physical dirt but also sub-hygienic feelings, thoughts and acts within the site of an old soap factory.

One of the most successful soaps produced at Gardiner Haskins was ‘Puritan Soap’ (late 19th to mid 20th century), suggesting a belief that good hygiene not only resulted in physical cleanliness, but a moral purity too.

With the Centre of Gravity exhibition set against the backdrop of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, hygiene and cleanliness have gone from a private act warranting minimal consideration to a public health concern with increasing influence over our lives. The act of handwashing has become a shared ritual, a simple act with new gravity and significance. The spheres of domesticity, cleaning and caregiving in which soap is central also became visible during the pandemic, with the moniker ‘key worker’ newly given to generally low paid workers on the front lines.

There have been moments during the course of 2020 when people have experienced a renewed sense of community, with the weekly clap for carers an expression of solidarity with others. However, a toxic combination of genuine fear and confusion over government issued guidelines has also resulted in campaigns of shaming and judgement through social media, encouragement to report wrongdoing neighbours to the police, and law enforcement publicising images of those not following the rules.

Puritanical Botanicals draws on the local history of Old Market, which was the site of the last ever Pie Powder (dusty feet) court in the UK, only officially abolished in 1971. Pie Powder Courts were common across the UK throughout the Middle Ages. The Old Market Pie Powder was held under an oak tree on the site where the Stag and Hounds pub now stands, doling out punishments to pickpockets and thieves in a pop up, makeshift court.

Another common practice in community justice and shaming at the time was rough music, a folk tradition in which noisy, demonstrative ‘music’ was made by a crowd beating on pots and pans, poker and tongs, marrow-bones and cleavers or anything that came to hand. Rough music was punishment by noise, and the unruly group was ruled by mob mentality. The tradition also has a contemporary application around the world, and the purpose of rough music has likewise varied over time, moving from expressing moral judgement to protest and resistance. As an expression of community emotion, the weekly clap for carers captured a shared experience through sound.

Puritanical Botanicals invites the audience to wash with one of three soaps produced for the exhibition. Morally Dubious Soap, Anti-Social Soap, and Wrong-Doing Soap are intended to wash away behavioural transgressions and to provide moral relief to their user.

The three soaps, each with associated artist-designed print, will be available to purchase through the exhibition (limited edition of 50).