Minna Dubin

Title

Minna Dubin

Contributor

Minna Dubin

Location

Berkeley
California

Artist Statement

I am interested in using art to challenge people to think critically about cultural mythologies embedded in our everyday lives. I take familiar things, pry them open, look for truths, that people prefer stay quiet. In a cuddle session with my toddler, I find the eroticism in the pleasure of his skin on mine. My work is about careful noticing and reporting back. My current guerrilla public art project called #MomLists, consists of 150 lists about my motherhood experiences. #MomLists peels back the happy family selfies we see on social media and searches out an alternative motherhood narrative. #MomLists aims to spark dialogue and add to the conversation about parenting, motherhood, and sexism. I write about things that most moms don’t talk about: experiencing a new well inside of me bubbling with inexplicable rage, fists pounding thighs; feeling overwhelmed by how much I am needed; the pleasure I get from my son’s soft, little body. Though the writing is personal, so much of it is universal—exhaustion, gender roles, the decrease of sex in parenthood. Each list is handwritten on a 4x6 card. A top layer of bright decorative paper is sewn on top. Each piece hangs from a ribbon. The colorful paper with dangling ribbon tendrils creates a whimsical effect. The viewer wants to touch it, and unlike most art, #MomLists requires interaction. The reader has to lift the pretty exterior to get to the gritty, vulnerable list underneath. For this exhibit, I’d like to hang 30 of them in a square/box shape to mimic the box of the identity “mother.” In the sea of early parenthood, where one day bleeds into the next, the act of making—cutting, sewing, hand writing, stamping—then feeling the tangible, finished product in my hands, feels like a relief. Each piece is a clearly laid-out goal—the opposite of the uncertain, haphazard nature of raising a child.

Collection

Citation

minnadubin, “Minna Dubin,” Artist Parent Index , accessed March 29, 2024, https://www.artistparentindex.com/items/show/297.

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