Assignment 2a - Selda's Cleaner.....

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In exploring what i wanted to achieve with the Relationships assignment, i decided that it might be too easy to explore things which were very similar in nature. Whilst not shying away from something where people know each other and get on, I also wanted to explore other forms of relationships as well....

Selda’s cleaner....
Selda is the estate agent 200m up the road from me. We were talking during last week when she mentioned that she was moving into her new apartment that weekend and also having the cleaner in to work all day. I wasn’t sure whether or not it might work as a subject; whether there would be any interaction at all, complete indifference, or whether they would even be in the same room at all – but decided to explore it and find out. As soon as i got there i quickly realised that i couldn’t have dressed either one better if i had picked things out myself. The difference between the local clothes of the cleaner that would traditionally mark her out as poorer, less educated, more religious and most likely to originate from Eastern Turkey - a large long skirt; a headscarf and small slipper. Countering that was her employer Selda; urban, non-religious and “modern” in terms of clothes, attitudes and bearing. The one thing that struck me about them both was that they may have been separated by a considerable wealth differential, but they still fitted neatly into the roles each of them were playing......that of master and servant.
I tried to explore the space between them; the way in which they both carried on with their “jobs” or positions; and most particularly how Selda couldn’t let go of what the cleaner was doing – constantly telling her what to do and how to do it......but then having the cleaner work around her. I’m still not sure whether it was a question of her being completely focused on her own job to the exclusion of everything else; or that it’s a question of culture or personality that meant it was completely natural to have people cleaning about her feet, or around her......but she was able to be indifferent to it all. On the other hand i was able to capture them laughing and joking together.
it certainly wasn’t a relationship of equals; but neither was it one of indifference, rudeness or arrogance - possibly a relationship where each respected the other in their own role and as fellow Turks perhaps?
p.s. i never got the name of the cleaner; she was “just” “the cleaner”