Everything but the kitchen sink!
We've heard or used this expression before.
The poor kitchen sink. It gets no love.
Quick!
When was the last time you spent any time thinking about your kitchen sink?
Maybe that one time you done up your kitchen?
Even then, its probably a cursory decision wasn't it?
You didn't visit multiple showrooms like for other home accessories or appliances, did you?
The above is an expressionist painting by John Bratby.
He founded the Kitchen Sink school of social realism painting style that depicts the working class activities of his time in UK during the late 50s to early 60s.
Who would want to paint a kitchen sink?
And from a working class household some more!?
Have you noticed many seeking to "escape" the drudgery of "work" often paint and write about an "idealistic" or "romanticised" story of their journeys or plans?
Its like those Mills and Boon romantic novels or Kpop dramas that so captivate our hearts.
OK, this could be hard on you if you read books and watch movies/plays without thnking.
For those who do, try recalling those movies/plays/TV dramas/books that were in the social realism style.
And contrast the two emotions you felt when exposed to Romantism and Social Realism.
Yes, its not your fault for not taking Art or Literature in school. But hey! Art and Literature are all around us. Just take the time to smell the flowers once in a while.
What's the point?
I know some may think got money can already.
Well, you'll have to ask yourself whether you eat to live or live to eat.
And then you'll look at the kitchen sink in another light.
Wink.
Kitchen sink has to be cleaned each time after having heavy wash. If not cockroaches and ants come. Lol
ReplyDeleteCW,
DeleteSome may say its "sharpening the saw" ;)
Let's be honest. How many men have cleaned the kitchen sink themselves?
Mom does it.
Wife did it.
And maid have done it.
LOL!
Househusband has to clean kitchen sink. If not; then who?
DeleteCW,
DeleteYou very de honest!
Respect!
House-husband say house-husband; stay-at-home dad say stay-at-home dad.
The more we try to hide the "obvious", the more we become like those guys with comb-overs...
Who's kidding who?
LOL!
Hi SMOL
ReplyDeletePhrase should be "everything including the kitchen sink.
Ehhh, I just scrubbed the kitchen sink on Sunday... nice & shiny! LOL!!
Is the trend still using homogeneous hardtop sink integrated with the counter-top? It was the rage back in the late 1990s to early 2000s... but wifey preferred traditional stainless steel one.
Spur,
DeleteEh... You google and see lor!
Both versions are in use; I prefer the "but" version ;)
The problem with "trends" is they may become passe...
I'm with your wife (I always side with women); I'm a tradionalist when it comes to kitchen sinks - I only accept stainless steel (modern) or white ceramic ones (country).
Aiyo SMOL,
ReplyDeleteLooks like you have not tried this kitchen sink before :P
Unintelligent Nerd,
DeleteWow! Mexican kitchen sink I've yet to try!
Next time I'll try ;)
Thanks!
Hi SMOL,
ReplyDeleteThere's an inherent irony in the social realism movement by the artist. The working class are busy with life and putting food on the table. I will think they are not so concerned with the bourgeois-tic crafts of arts, poetry, fine dance etc. While drawing about kitchen sink is better than drawing about fine gentlemen and ladies strolling in the park with a dog or two in front of them, to say that a kitchen sink depicts the working class is to say that having a picture of buddha hung in my room will make me a better person.
It reminds me of the surrealist artist René Magritte's The Treason of Images. It shows a pipe with the caption: Ceci n’est pas une pipe” (Translated: This is not a pipe). It took a quite sometime before I realised what it means. It's a picture of a pipe, not a real pipe.
If a picture is a constructed image of what a pipe SHOULD look like in the picture, it definitely is not the pipe itself. If we apply this concept to the kitchen sink, then the picture of the kitchen sink does not represent the working class. It represents the image of the working class as imagined by the artist. At best an accurate construct, but a construct nevertheless. Illusory, imaginary, not real.
Hey, I'm also making a statement of how I imagined the artist is imagining how the working class is by imagining what a kitchen sink looks like if imagined in the kitchen of the working class. Damn, everything is not as it seems.
The treachery of words and pictures and sights and sounds.
LP,
DeleteYou definitely can read my meta-messages ;)
The treachery of words and the treason of images indeed!
We know you not me and I not you.
Yet we still lapsed into monkey see monkey do...
Or assume what works for me will work for others!?
I tell you, we have the biggest Indian Chiefs in our community!
LOL!
Hi SMOL,
ReplyDeleteLOL, for the working class, there's no such thing as social realism. Realism is when you feel your hunger pangs from not eating lunch, or the helplessness when you are fired from your job yet having to go home with several expectant faces looking at you for money to buy food.
I hope I'm not an Indian chief. Follow me at your own peril! lol
LP,
DeleteMy sentiments too.
Everyone is quick to tell the working class what to do, how to think, and why they must continuously upgrade, retrain, work harder (of course don't teach them to work smart), and of course always to listen and "trust" their shepherds.
Its all with best intentions of course!
The person who fights for minimum wage is the not the one with skin in the game when the worker gets replaced by a machine.
The person who exhorts upgrading and retraining can't guarantee employemnt and just shrugs when the job has been exported to Vietnam.
The financial snake oil who frightens the working class to "invest" or else will not make whole the investment when losses occur.
And the funny thing, the same "wah kali kong" works on the supposedly "educated" middle class too!
I'm so grateful for this watering hole. Hard to be an Indian Chief here. Say something someone have a different opinion on, I'll get immediate feedback!
Ouch!
LOL!
Hi smol
ReplyDeleteI like the stainless steel kitchen sink but don't know why I seldom see stainless steel sink in people house. Only can see in restaurant kitchen or the kopitiam zi char stall then can see stainless steel 1. I feel myself weird lei... hehehe
sy sy,
DeleteThere is a reason why professionals stick with stainless steel sinks ;)
I would bet your friends' kitchens were done up by "designers".
Designers got commissions from suppliers, so make a guess what the "designers" would recommend to their clients?
Psst. This is the latest new trend!
LOL!
Me personal feel it is easier to clean after a having "war" (cooking) in kitchen... hahaha
DeleteBcos my old house is using stainless steel 1, don't need to worry after oil or sauce... dirty the sink.
Are u using stainless steel sink now? Is it stainless steel sink much expensive that's why not many people using?
Cheers
sy sy,
DeleteStainless steel can take a lot more "punishment". And hygenic due to easier cleaning.
Just as long you don't mind the scratches (can sand away the scratches if we don't mind the work though).
Yes, I am using a stainless steel sink.
The most expensive stanless steel sink I saw is from Japan - scratch resistant, stain resistant, and low decibel in sound if we let the tap water runs... $1,000 and above!?
I strike Toto I will buy it! Its part of the "atas" stainless steel kitchen countertop series. A small kitchen will cost around $10K.
Then there are the IKEA sinks that cost $100 plus. I am using the IKEA one ;)