The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Crimson red wall embedded with two stainless steel dryer doors, side-by-side. The one on our left swings open to reveal darkness within. The doors have a circular silver-colored rim, a concave, plexiglass center, showing reflective darkness, and a mat black ring transitioning the dryer to the crimson wall. The dryers have rectangular handles that say "PUSH IN TO LOCK."

Washing Away of Wrongs

2014

Anicka Yi

(American, b. 1971)
America
2 stainless steel dryer doors, Plexiglas, diffuser, 2 fragrances designed by Christophe Laudamiel - Traennen and Bullfrog
Overall: 304.8 x 332.7 x 67.3 cm (120 x 131 x 26 1/2 in.)
Gift of the Contemporary Art Society 2014.403
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

One door contains a custom scent called “Divorce,” which contains pungent notes that are spicy and animalistic.

Description

Anicka Yi defies expectations with her artworks that poetically engage all the human senses from touch to scent. This work was inspired by the strong emotions that are experienced when a relationship ends. Two industrial dryer doors, as seen in laundromats, each contain a different, original scent that speaks to the experience of loss and separation; accordingly, these scents are less than pleasant. She says, “Two industrial laundry dryer doors transmit scents—one abstract, one representational, two separate systems, both a washing away of wrongs. Take in notes of fried intersections, brooms sweeping up situations, folded cardboard. . . . The other door trickles out a different rhythm of presence through absence—prehistoric wetland, brackish vegetation, yellow throated bullfrog. . . .”
  • Collection of the artist; acquired by the CMA from 47 Canal, New York in 2014.
  • Creahan, D. “Anicka Yi: ‘Divorce’ at 47 Canal Through June 8th, 2014.” Art Observed (June 9, 2014).
    Rutland, Beau and Thüring, Reto. “Acquisition Highlights 2014: Contemporary Art.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 55, no. 2 (March/April 2015): 25. Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 25 archive.org
    Burton, Johanna. “Split Subjects: Johanna Burton on Anicka Yi at 47 Canal, New York.” Texte Zur Kunst no. 95 (September 2014): 213-215. Reproduced and Mentioned p. 214.
    Prickett, Sarah Nicole. “Anicka Yi.” Interview Magazine (October 10, 2014).
    Rosenberg, Karen. “Anicka Yi: ‘Divorce.’” The New York Times (May 22, 2014): C26.
    Aloi, Giovanni, Rachel C. Lee, Merlin Sheldrake, and Pirelli HangarBicocca (Milan, Italy). Anicka Yi: Metaspore. Interview by Anicka Yi. Edited by Fiammetta Griccioli, Vicent Todoli, and Remina Greenfield. Translated by Johanna Bishop and Laura Guidetti. First edition. Venezia, [Milan]: Marsilio arte ; Pirelli HangarBicocca, 2022. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 184-185, fig. 1
  • Anicka Yi: Death. Transformer Station, Cleveland, OH (October 11, 2014-January 17, 2015).
    Anicka Yi: Divorce. 47 Canal, New York (April 30 - June 8, 2014).
  • {{cite web|title=Washing Away of Wrongs|url=false|author=Anicka Yi|year=2014|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2014.403