My work represents my frustrations about domestic life, by communicating the raw, unfiltered side of how my anxiety and motherhood sometimes coincide. By addressing the harsh stigmas society has towards both anxiety and motherhood, I hope to normalize the reality rather than continue the cycle of these idealized notions of what motherhood is supposed to be. My work may appear selfish at times, but I think that is ok, and should become the societal norm. It is a part of the job description as a parent that your needs become second to your child’s, but your needs must not be forgotten. The work that I am creating allows me to release my frustrations about domestic life, and motherhood is a part of that. Recognizing my faults as a person, as a mother, and learning from them can only make me better at my job. I visually express the exhaustion I feel from the seemingly constant and endless amount of housework with Good Moms Need Help II. I used a domestic object, an ironing board, I then bent and twisted until it became useless. Useless in the sense of being an ironing board. It appears sad, tired, it is trying desperately to perform its duties but can’t. I should be able to discuss my feelings and frustrations without ridicule but that is not often the case. I am often met with, “you’ll miss these days,” resulting in my feelings being again disregarded, and as if I can feel nothing but happiness about motherhood or I am viewed as ungrateful. Will I miss this time in my children’s lives? Absolutely. Is it also valid that some days the housework and messes they create are exhausting and make me go crazy to the point I complain, absolutely.
My work is multidisciplinary, installation-based, and performative, exploring notions of the domestic and the urban through the intimate (or public) matters of living together; personal care and household maintenance; wellness and well-being; and the effects of globalization and technological development upon living space. Propelled by narrative, installations probe issues of social discomfort and our cultural obsession with cleanliness; the methods through which society sanitizes women; our desire for quick-fix methods of self-help and self-care; and the increasing invisibility of technological infrastructure in the urban and domestic landscape.
I have recently been the societal tendency to position the figure of the Child as representative of “the future” – a reliance on reproductive futurism - and the problems of this representation for those who choose not to reproduce or cannot reproduce. I’m interested in positioning issues of social reproduction alongside those of biological reproduction and exploring the notion of reproductive futurity alongside the neoliberal characteristic of cleanliness as generating a forward-facing pathway. I’m interested in deconstructing notions of “the future” and asking questions about ideas of care in relation to reproductive futurity and the drive for technological “innovation”.
Zoo Indigo is an Anglo-German contemporary performance company based in Nottingham, founded by Rosie Garton and Ildiko Rippel. They have created performance work since 2002, touring regionally, nationally and internationally. The Company have devised many multidisciplinary performance works in collaboration with artists from a variety of disciplines, and produced a range of forms of work, including theatre-based performances, street interventions and interactive site-specific projects.
The performance work tends to stem from exploration with autobiography from performers and audience, with a focus on the innovative integration of digital technologies. With the use of humour, popular music and the reprocessing of cultural texts, (often iconic film images), the company juxtaposes the banalities of the everyday with the extraordinary.