Oh the ironing!
A Greenpoint dad will set up his Ikea ironing board at Williamsburg bar Pete’s Candy Store next month and do people’s ironing for free — in the name of art. He insists the performance is no joke, but claims he needs public kudos to master the common, household chore.
“I love ironing, I really do,” said James Hook, who works at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden when he’s not handling strangers’ underwear. “I feel in order to perfect it, I need to bring it into a public forum — I feel you need to have people judging your work beyond your friends and family.”
Hook will wield his Black and Decker steam iron at the bar from 9 pm to midnight every Tuesday in July, straightening out hipsters’ ill-fitting linens as fast as they can toss them his way during the allotted time.
Drawing from the artist (i.e. unemployed) lingo of those whose chores he’ll be doing, Hook is calling his month-long stay a “residency.”
The self-proclaimed “Iron Man” says his love of all things laundry goes back to his childhood in Kenya, where there were no clothes dryers so everyone spent a lot of time hanging out the washing and then ironing the wrinkly results.
“Because everything was hung out to dry, ironing was a big part of my domestic and social young life,” he said.
These days, Hook says he loves nothing more than getting hot and steamy with an Oxford shirt and would never dream of sleeping on un-ironed sheets like a barbarian.
He finds no joy in pleated skirts, however, which he says manage to be both challenging and dull “in the same way ‘Moby-Dick’ is.”
Beyond honing his hobby, Hook hopes the act will elevate an otherwise mundane household task into a revered ritual — like a Japanese tea ceremony — and allow him to connect with those who offer up their wrinkled slacks on a more spiritual level.
“I hope some part of this will be a ceremonial aspect,” he said. “Hopefully this will help momentarily guide our spirits to something higher.”
This isn’t Hook’s first wacky bar-based endeavour — he organized a dish-washing competition at the Diamond in May, a dinner party at Le Gamin Cafe inspired by Russian mystic Rasputin in 2014, and for years ran a popular lecture series at Pete’s, which is also where he got married.
James Hook presents “Iron Man” at Pete’s Candy Store [709 Lorimer St. between Richardson and Frost streets in Williamsburg, (718) 302–3770, www.petes
