mot-ter: a porous construction
My most recent works, this is the process of 2 -3 years of diary entries, conversations, long walks in the woods, days spent crying or laughing or sometimes both and; re visiting childhood trauma’s & experiences that manifest in my life currently.
I began to explore the relationship I had with my mother and the cyclical behaviours and patterns that occurred within my own family and between my siblings. This increasingly interesting topic, when explored through generations; constructs a sense of self and performance of our present choices and expressions.
The project is vast so here I share just a selection of images from the full catalogue, however please enquire to see more or, for the for the full project text and to see this work exhibited, alongside the video footage and project soundscape - please visit the exhibition page.
Including printed photographs, sculptural installation, archive materials, sound recordings, poetry, journal entries, handmade items and video - this work is underpinned by feminist narratives and explores the themes of identity, memory, agency and the inherent expression of female as body,
MOT-TER begins from an autobiographical position, using the relationship with the artists mother to interrogate these concepts through a set of repeated, remembered gestures.
We are forced to consider the cyclical languages and obligations of our surroundings. Of our interpretations of the naked body, political and historical references, of our ancestry and, how these notions truly separate us as an individual.
Facets of identity are broken down, agency is questioned. The artist, the woman, is both the surveyed and the surveyor.
As more personal elements are introduced in to the gallery space we can offer critique on the behaviours of the performed self and those which are saved for our closest family.
The uncomfortable line of familiarity between the mother and daughter connection antagonising the unspoken distance, asking how much of the mothers identity is linked with that of the daughters or visa versa?
This project brings together a mix of media to ask these questions, to look at the familiarity and the nuances coexisting, to examine both the internal and external understanding of the ‘me.’
Where does the individual begin and where does it end?