M(other) Stories – (January 2015-January 2016)
Autobiographical writing is juxtaposed with photographs taken at home and during the school run using my smart phone camera. Photographs record the ever shifting, transitory time I share with my family. There are shadow portraits of me and my son playing, of my son sleeping, intimate observations of his body and skin, collaged together with chalked marks drawn on the hard tarmac surface of the school playground. There are pictures of the kitchen table, of breakfasts being hastily eaten, dirty bowls and plates. There are empty prams waiting to be pushed, washing lines hanging heavy with children’s clothes, and the brightly coloured plastic paraphernalia of parenthood left abandoned on street corners; high chairs, baths, potties, scooters, bikes, toys.
The project was inspired by Mierle Laderman Ukeles’ “Manifesto for Maintenance Art 1969” and Lisa Baraitser’s writing in “Maternal Encounters The Ethics of Interruption”, 2009. M(other) Stories documents the work and challenges required of a woman balancing her roles and responsibilities as mother and artist.
Over the course of a year I published 332 posts.
