BUBBLY art student Karen Donnelly knew exactly how to soap up her tutors when they told her to organise a photography exhibition.

She felt hanging pictures in a dusty old gallery was too wishy-washy -- so she took them for a tumble at a launderette instead.

Karen, aged 34, hopes the Clean Street show, just outside the town centre, will put quite a bit of bounce into her grades at the Bolton Institute of Higher Education.

But she's wondering if it will put the laundry's more delicate customers in a spin.

"A launderette is perfect for an art exhibition," she said. "Other places just won't wash. I hope the other customers will like my pictures. But I'm sure they will."

Karen's photographs are all based on a garish but gorgeous art genre called Kitsch.

They depict a Spice Girls' purse, a Che Guevara snow-globe -- and even a pair of Adam Ant knickers.

But the artist says she will not experience the excitement of rinsing her own smalls while her pictures are on the wall.

She does most of her washing at The Hollins dorm on Radcliffe Road. She said: "People spend a lot of time in laundries so they are good places to exhibit your work.

"There's not much to do while waiting for your load to finish, so customers will be able to take a good look at my pictures.

"I don't really enjoy doing my own washing. It takes too much time. But holding my exhibition in the laundry was a great idea anyway. It just came right out out of the blue."

Karen's exhibition will be at the Clean Street laundry in Bradford Street from tomorrow until February 19. It will be open from 9am to 6pm and art lovers can do their washing for just £2 a load.