The death of my  beloved bread maker has triggered this current project. I have been reminding myself of the lovely theraputic qualities of kneeding bread, and Naoise has been loving getting messy with the sticky flour mess. These baking sessions have involved shaping bread dough into letters and forming it into truism’s such as “Don’t cry over spilt milk”, and sculpting it into pregnant women and children, playing with and eating the results. 

I am exploring ways in which I can create artwork together with my children, and ways in which I can communicate the emotional landscape of caring for children at home.This project considers the current economic crisis, and how this has directly effected the families in the UK who are living on the breadline.

“There has been rapid expansion in food banks over the past two years in response to growing numbers of people unable to feed themselves or their families as a result of rising living costs, shrinking incomes and welfare benefit cuts.”

Patrick Butler, Breadline Britain: Councils fund food banks to plug holes in welfare state, The Guardian, Tuesday 21st August 2012.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/aug/21/councils-invest-food-banks-welfare-cuts

Last week I was shocked by the news that Save the Children had launched its first domestic appeal “to help families plunged into poverty by cuts and recession”. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/sep/05/save-the-children-uk-campaign

There is something seriously wrong with our society when families living in one of the richest countries in the world are unable to afford to feed their children. I feel that this current government has neglected some of the most vulnerable people living in the UK today.

I have plans to develop this work into a community arts project based upon the establishment of a bread group, and how I could use sour dough starter as a catalyst for a community baking project. I have also been playing with ideas of giving out bread on the streets to people in my local community in Todmorden.