A private room gets a public exhibit

Shattered mirrors. A wavy bathtub. A roll of toilet paper, with an end piece flapping in the wind. What do these things have in common? They are all pieces of the life-size childhood bathroom replica Annabelle Edwards-Stoll ’24 has constructed in their Main South backyard.

The tagline of the art piece is “Life happens in a bathroom, and it happens quickly,” a phrase at odds with Edwards-Stoll’s personal philosophy that life is to be lived slowly and thoughtfully.

The bathroom is made almost entirely of chicken wire, with tin-foiled mirrors holding shards of glass that spell out the artist’s working name, Aces, in big letters. Bits of color-coated wire are wrapped meticulously around the chicken wire, representing the ephemeral memories tied to the space.

“It’s not meant to be hyperrealistic,” Edwards-Stoll says. “You’re supposed to notice that you’re standing in a bathroom, and that it’s in a home — my home, my mind, my memory. It’s really a memory-scape.” They describe the bathroom as a place for their rapidly evolving identity: from child, to teenager, to adult.

The replica is the studio art major’s senior thesis and first large-scale installation piece.

“This is the space where I got ready for the day and dismantled my appearance at the end of the day. It’s where I understood myself, looked in the mirror, and expressed myself,” Edwards-Stoll says. “I was trying to capture the memory of those formative times in my life.

Edwards-Stoll builds off the many moments — both pleasant and unpleasant — experienced within the space, including the chaos of fighting for bathroom time with two siblings, gossiping with friends, feelings of body dysmorphia, or inking their first tattoo.

“There were points of internal conflict, and then I would stare into myself, and I would remember who I want to be, and how I want to help and understand the world,” they say.

Edwards-Stoll laughs when recalling the bathroom flooding several times, drenching the dining room below.

“I think I was the culprit for two of those times. It’s really another one of those things that is indicative of how my family runs. It’s very go-with-the-flow.”

Edwards-Stoll believes that their process creates much of the meaning behind the piece. They describe accidentally pricking themselves on the chicken wire and being reminded of both emotional and physical pain experienced within the actual bathroom.

The wire used to create the bathroom is flexible yet strong, which, Edwards-Stoll says, is how their mind works. The papier-mâché covering the wire represents the malleability of softer emotions.

Edwards-Stoll, who is exhibiting the piece in the studio art thesis show through Commencement, gives immense credit their mentors, professors Sherry Freyermuth, Stephen DiRado, and James Maurelle, all of whom teach within the Visual and Performing Arts Department.

The final form of the piece will show some wear and tear since it has intentionally been left out in the elements.

“I’m going to be adding material to the walls that will decay with the weather, and it’s made to do that,” Edwards-Stoll says. “I just have to let that happen. I’m going to document it, but I’m not allowed to touch it.

“I am about to enter maybe the biggest challenge yet, and that is to let go.”