Welded steel, 28 x 24 x 24, 2000.
The title names the end of a day’s washing. A load of laundry is what fits in one basket and goes through one cycle, and the last load is the one after which the chore is done. The sculpture sets out the stages of that chore from left to right.
At the left is the basket, deep and round, with a notch in its rim, and it’s empty. Next to it a patterned sheet is draped across two uprights, rising to the taller post and sloping down to the shorter, the way cloth hangs over a line. It is the lightest and most textured surface in the piece, set against dark posts. At the far right a single sheet stands against the second post with shallow accordion folds, stepping down in height, and it’s the last stage of the wash, the sheet folded for putting away. The three stages are basket, line and fold.
What sits in each stage is lighter than what came before it. The basket holds nothing, the draped sheet is half in the air and the folded sheet stands in its own pleats. The row ends in the folded sheet, so the load is finished when the viewer’s eye reaches the right edge.
