Worlds’ tallest pile of dirty dishes comes to NYC gallery Sept 4 as art installation on mental load and modern “chore wars”

• 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.

CONTACT: press@paired.com 

NOTES FOR THE EDITORS


ABOUT IOANA ARON

Ioana Aron is a Romanian visual artist working between Paris, New York, and Bucharest. Her multidisciplinary practice – spanning painting, installation, sculpture, photography, and video – explores the emotional traces left by intimacy, routine, and human connection. Grounded in personal experience, her work draws attention to the quiet weight of everyday life and the tensions that accumulate in shared space.

ABOUT PAIRED.COM 

Paired is the app that brings couples closer. A space where busy couples can get playful, lighten the mental load, and grow closer in just five minutes a day. Dive into daily conversation starters, quizzes, games, insights, and more. Plus, advice from leading relationship experts. Scientifically proven to increase relationship satisfaction, Paired is a past winner of a Google Play Award, a former Apple App of the Day and has been downloaded over eight million times. 

ABOUT THE ART VACANCY 

The Art Vacancy is a women-founded art organization based in Paris and New York, supporting artists across all disciplines. Founded in March 2017 by Sáng Huynh and Lindsey Puccio, TAV aims to encourage creatives by shaping unique opportunities for them to expand their craft and network of resources. 

ABOUT SATELLITE GALLERY

Satellite is in the heart of the art gallery district of New York’s Lower East Side and a short walk from Soho. It presents artist-focused works of art, curated exhibitions and immersive projects and says, “We make space for bold adventurers and pioneering future-forward creators across a multitude of disciplines”. 

ABOUT THE SURVEY

Paired polled 1,209 Paired users in the U.S. between July 23 and 30, 2025. Responses were collected online. The margin of error was 3%.

OTHER RELEVANT RESEARCH 

• Couples who report fair division of housework have more frequent sex and higher overall relationship quality (University of Alberta, 2016)

• In heterosexual couples, even when both partners work full-time, women still shoulder more housework and mental load (Hochschild, 1989; ongoing findings in OECD reports).

• Unequal division of household labour is linked to lower relationship satisfaction and increased conflict (Journal of Marriage and Family, 2019).