This work consists of two vertical washing machine drums, stuffed with ‘unwanted’ hotel bed sheets, held in place with tinted Perspex and mounted on the wall. It was inspired by a visit to an industrial hotel wash house near Edinburgh, where I was struck by the immense, rotating machines filled with white bedding and towels.
 
The sheets I collected were all damaged in some way (mostly sweat stains) but still clean, creating an intriguing tension between imperfection and order. My process involves meticulously arranging the sheets until they feel ‘correct’, often requiring several attempts. On a personal level, this practice of finding order in something unruly reflects my experience of processing trauma; it is a way of confronting and attempting to make sense of what feels chaotic and uncontrollable  
 
Conceptually, the work engages with ideas of unseen labor—both personal and societal—that sustain public and private spaces. It explores the quiet, often invisible work behind cleanliness and order in a physical, contemplative form.

Marni Saunders is an intermedia artist based in Edinburgh, drawn to the discarded, the dirty, and the overlooked. Working with found objects and sculptural processes such as resin casting, her practice explores themes of unseen labour, gendered work, dirt, cleanliness, and the aesthetics of maintenance. She interrogates what society conceals, sanitises, and throws away, and who carries the burden of keeping things presentable.

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Her practice is an act of reclaiming agency: transforming what was once uncontrollable into something held and owned. It challenges the silence around invisible labour and emotional burdens, inviting both viewer and artist to hold complexity without demanding resolution. In this way, her work becomes not only a critique of societal structures but also a deeply personal journey toward acceptance, healing, and freedom.