- UNVEILED Sept 4, 6pm ET. Media preview: 6-9pm
- 8-ft sculpture of dirty dishes debuts Sept 4-6 at NYC’s Satellite Gallery
- Created by artist Ioana Aron in partnership with couples app Paired
- Explores themes of emotional residue, mental load, domestic tension
- Asking price: $18,000
- “It’s a Leaning Tower of Plates, Pots and Passive Aggression”
- Immersive sound installation voices anonymous confessions of couples
- Chore wars hurt our sex life, say 65% of couples: poll
- 33% have left the dishes unwashed, to show their annoyance
- Chore fights have prompted one in five to consider breaking up
NEW YORK – Sep 2025 – A giant pile of dirty dishes is coming to New York as a new conceptual artwork and installation on modern chore wars.
The eight-foot-tall installation, Our Dirty Dishes: Echoes of the Everyday, debuts September 4–6 at the cutting-edge Satellite Gallery on the Lower East Side, during peak art fair season.
It is the creation of Ioana Aron, a Romanian visual and multidisciplinary artist, and was commissioned by Paired, the #1 app for couples and relationship care.
The sculpture comprises a chaotic pile of dishes, pots, and utensils stacked in a giant kitchen sink, symbolizing the silent build-up of resentment and emotional residue that can accumulate in domestic partnerships.
Conflict over household chores, like doing the dishes, has made nearly two-thirds (65%) of those in couples feel less in the mood for sex, according to a new poll of 1,209 Paired users. A third (33%) of Paired users in the same poll confess they have intentionally not done the dishes to make a point or show they were annoyed with their partner, while unwashed dishes have prompted nearly one in five (18%) to consider breaking up.
“It’s an Eiffel Tower of domestic resentment,” says Kevin Shanahan, CEO of Paired. “A Leaning Tower of Plates, Pots and Passive Aggression. From dirty dishes to hogging the bathroom, we all test our partners’ patience. This sculpture reminds us that we can all do better.”
Integral to the new sculpture is an immersive sound installation, featuring anonymous voice recordings submitted by Paired users and others across the world, in response to an open call with prompts about emotional labor, mental load and domestic friction.
Artist Ioana Aron says, “I want my art to remind people that their unwashed dishes, the note on the refrigerator, and the wine stains on the carpet are all art – and more. Seen together, they reflect our privacy: a mirror of our inner lives.”
The new sculpture anchors a wider exhibition of Aron’s work, curated by Sáng Huynh of The Art Vacancy, a women-founded art organization based in Paris and New York. It may also prompt comparisons with such iconic works of conceptual and feminist art as My Bed, British artist Tracy Emin’s 1998 installation, comprising her unmade bed in a dishevelled state.
“It’s a towering sculptural installation – a chaotic mountain of plates, pots, and utensils embodying accumulated emotional residue,” says Huynh of the new work. “It spills upward and outward – layered, precarious, and quietly overwhelming.”
The show also features earlier pieces by Aron, including Our Dirty Bedroom (2023), co-created with her then-partner Brice Aparicio, which likewise interrogates the emotional archaeology of shared domestic spaces. The exhibition, like its centerpiece, explores how intimacy is built and unbuilt in the quiet corners of everyday domestic life.
Paired offers couples a gentler way to navigate such tensions – with daily conversation prompts, weekly check-ins, games, and expert advice.
“The push and pull of two worlds merging into one is often most noticeable through the mundane – dirty dishes left too long, laundry left unfolded,” says Aly Bullock, Paired’s Head of Relationships and a leading relationship coach. “When these moments of friction go unresolved, a partnership can suddenly feel very lonely. This new sculpture is a reminder to heed such moments and treat them with care.”
Our Dirty Dishes: Echoes of The Everyday will be at the Satellite Gallery, September 4–6, 2025. A photo call/media preview is taking place from 6-9pm on Thursday Sept 4.
