mothers-room

In-Between aims to call attention to Prolapsed Uterus, our uterus (or womb) is usually held in place inside the pelvis with various muscles, tissues, and ligaments. As a result of pregnancy or childbirth, in some cases, these muscles weaken. Additionally, as women age, there is a natural decline in estrogen levels which can cause the uterus to drop into the vaginal canal. Prolapse is a silent epidemic that many women suffer from. One of the non-surgical treatments for the condition is a vaginal pessary, a removable device placed into the vagina. It is designed to support areas of pelvic organ prolapse. Pessaries have been around since the late 1400s and have a Latin and Greek origin. I gave birth to my only daughter in my forties without using an epidural, and I delivered naturally; as a result, my uterus collapsed the following year. My Ob/Gyn doctor tried to fit me with a pessary more than once with no success. The problem with pessary sizes is that they come in fixed sizes, and the manufacturers do not provide made-to-order options. Women come in all shapes and sizes, and so do their uterus and vaginal openings. The ring is the most popular pessary, and the fitting set sizes that are available are sizes 2”, 3”, 4”, 5”, 6”, and 7”. During my fitting, the size 4” pessary was too big, and the size 3” was too small. No other options were available. For my art project, I made a 3D models by scanning an existing ring pessary sizes 2”-7 “, then with an increment of 0.25”, I made all the sizes in-between. 

In-Between aims to call attention to Prolapsed Uterus, our uterus (or womb) is usually held in place inside the pelvis with various muscles, tissues, and ligaments. As a result of pregnancy or childbirth, in some cases, these muscles weaken. Additionally, as women age, there is a natural decline in estrogen levels which can cause the uterus to drop into the vaginal canal. Prolapse is a silent epidemic that many women suffer from. One of the non-surgical treatments for the condition is a vaginal pessary, a removable device placed into the vagina. It is designed to support areas of pelvic organ prolapse. Pessaries have been around since the late 1400s and have a Latin and Greek origin. I gave birth to my only daughter in my forties without using an epidural, and I delivered naturally; as a result, my uterus collapsed the following year. My Ob/Gyn doctor tried to fit me with a pessary more than once with no success. The problem with pessary sizes is that they come in fixed sizes, and the manufacturers do not provide made-to-order options. Women come in all shapes and sizes, and so do their uterus and vaginal openings. The ring is the most popular pessary, and the fitting set sizes that are available are sizes 2”, 3”, 4”, 5”, 6”, and 7”. During my fitting, the size 4” pessary was too big, and the size 3” was too small. No other options were available. For my art project, I made a 3D models by scanning an existing ring pessary sizes 2”-7 “, then with an increment of 0.25”, I made all the sizes in-between.

A scanned original photograph documenting Rachel Finkelstein demonstrating in support of female reproductive autonomy, specifically abortion rights, outside the House of Commons, UK, 1977. The rear of the photograph bears stamps and dates from the production of the photograph in London. 

Linocut print

This is a fantastical organic-shaped architectural shape made to gestate art thoughts. It's a series of connected domes that are meant to cradle the viewer as they look at art.

Self-portrait painting, by artist, educator and mother, Susan Sanders-Rosenberg.

Diptych painting by artist, educator and mother Susan Sanders-Rosenberg. 

Women’s Work is (Screen) Saved shares written reflections on balancing work, life, and motherhood by women workers on Amazon.com’s Mechanical Turk digital working platform in December 2020. Presented as a screensaver, the work transforms the sentiments collected from 100 women into a set of virtual postcards. Women wrote how their lives were profoundly changed, and the screensaver images illustrate the variety of effects the pandemic has had on women around the globe including physical changes, anxiety, and grief. Reflecting on her grandchildren, one worker wrote, “You can’t hug through Zoom.” This work re-imagines collected texts from women workers—ghosts in the machine—into virtual postcards for viewing as a screensaver on those screens we can’t hug through at the ubiquitous pandemic worksite: the home office.

This work illuminates the bodies of digital workers in a corpus of text. It presents fragments of women’s writings culled from a body of collected text as a set of digital images. These images, rendered as digital postcards, activate the workers’ voices only when the computer, that is, the machine-proxy for the body of the digital worker, is at rest. It is no accident that this work is on display while the machine (perhaps akin to the rest of the family body?) is at rest. Their reflections about the work-life-motherhood-marathon illustrate a description familiar to many caregivers who quarantined and continued to work the double-shift throughout the pandemic.

While many of the texts included in the screensaver explicitly refer to the body—about gaining or losing weight, hugging, touching, or crying—all of them talk about corporeal experiences relatable to anyone who quarantined during the global pandemic. This project visualizes concrete moments stored in bodies from the recent past to create space for bodies of the future, whether they are virtual, textual, or corporeal. As one worker writes: “It’s like our bodies are holding on to it because we were inside for so long.”

Instrumental music plays along with the tile cards for the piece.

This piece originated in a LabSynthE discussion regarding unpaid labor and in planning our participatory artwork on that topic. Cynthia was breastfeeding River at the time. This piece is a sculpture and a record of her performance of that life giving labor. 

MotherBoard is a large-scale sculptural project by faculty, students and some alumni from The University of Texas at Dallas. The large art display will highlight the past, present and future of the city of Richardson as a tech hub. The collaborative project was led by the LightSquad, a group for creative research within The School of Arts, Humanities and Technology at UT Dallas. Professors Andrew Scott and Roxanne Minnish serve as faculty advisors for a group of graduate students, undergraduate students and alumni. This reel documents the creative and collaborative process of creating MotherBoard.

This is audio of artist Cynthia O'Neill feeding her son, River. 

This is audio of artist Cynthia O'Neill feeding her son, River.

Experimental lidar scan. 

This is a short story featuring Letícia Ferreira, sound edited by Maryam Ashkaboosi.

My name is Leticia. This is a story about my mom. When I was in undergrad, I was editing a documentary and it was a documentary that I was editing with my best friend and this professor had like 12 hours of batacan materials and she wanted us shredded that into a one hour movie and it was Super heavy interview. Cheerioh about like sugar cane workers. It was complicated. So we were working on this for like a year and it was taking us forever, but we were shaping it and this professor like really wanted things in her way. But sure, OK. And then we used to work nights a lot because our undergrad classes were at night and we should like drink all this Red Bull and be awake at my parents house, working then after lots of months. Of us working and like transcribe, transcribing and then editing. We are working and we're so tired and we hate this people now because we heard their stories 5000 times and we just want this to be over. And then we're working. And then my mom comes to us and she's like can. I ask a question. And we're like sure. And she says not in a mean way, but in a very curious way. So you guys been working on this for a? Long time right and. We're like yes, and she's like. Are you incompetent?

Before my children were born I went to the hospital multiple times a week to have the nurse practitioners listen to their (twin) heartbeats. Nine years later, this  sound artwork reimagines the "thud-thud" sound with a remix of my son Martin's voicing: "Mom."

Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom,

In-Between aims to call attention to Prolapsed Uterus, our uterus (or womb) is usually held in place inside the pelvis with various muscles, tissues, and ligaments. As a result of pregnancy or childbirth, in some cases, these muscles weaken. Additionally, as women age, there is a natural decline in estrogen levels which can cause the uterus to drop into the vaginal canal. Prolapse is a silent epidemic that many women suffer from. One of the non-surgical treatments for the condition is a vaginal pessary, a removable device placed into the vagina. It is designed to support areas of pelvic organ prolapse. Pessaries have been around since the late 1400s and have a Latin and Greek origin. I gave birth to my only daughter in my forties without using an epidural, and I delivered naturally; as a result, my uterus collapsed the following year. My Ob/Gyn doctor tried to fit me with a pessary more than once with no success. The problem with pessary sizes is that they come in fixed sizes, and the manufacturers do not provide made-to-order options. Women come in all shapes and sizes, and so do their uterus and vaginal openings. The ring is the most popular pessary, and the fitting set sizes that are available are sizes 2”, 3”, 4”, 5”, 6”, and 7”. During my fitting, the size 4” pessary was too big, and the size 3” was too small. No other options were available. For my art project, I made a 3D models by scanning an existing ring pessary sizes 2”-7 “, then with an increment of 0.25”, I made all the sizes in-between. 

In-Between aims to call attention to Prolapsed Uterus, our uterus (or womb) is usually held in place inside the pelvis with various muscles, tissues, and ligaments. As a result of pregnancy or childbirth, in some cases, these muscles weaken. Additionally, as women age, there is a natural decline in estrogen levels which can cause the uterus to drop into the vaginal canal. Prolapse is a silent epidemic that many women suffer from. One of the non-surgical treatments for the condition is a vaginal pessary, a removable device placed into the vagina. It is designed to support areas of pelvic organ prolapse. Pessaries have been around since the late 1400s and have a Latin and Greek origin. I gave birth to my only daughter in my forties without using an epidural, and I delivered naturally; as a result, my uterus collapsed the following year. My Ob/Gyn doctor tried to fit me with a pessary more than once with no success. The problem with pessary sizes is that they come in fixed sizes, and the manufacturers do not provide made-to-order options. Women come in all shapes and sizes, and so do their uterus and vaginal openings. The ring is the most popular pessary, and the fitting set sizes that are available are sizes 2”, 3”, 4”, 5”, 6”, and 7”. During my fitting, the size 4” pessary was too big, and the size 3” was too small. No other options were available. For my art project, I made a 3D models by scanning an existing ring pessary sizes 2”-7 “, then with an increment of 0.25”, I made all the sizes in-between.

This is an interview by artist Tony Bingham, of Praise House fame, interviewing his mother, Marymal Morgan Dryden, a former faculty member at Atlanta University. Dryden is discussing her account of a juried exhibition called The May Show. 

Audio file May Show.mp3 Transcript Tell say your name and then talk about May show. This is Marymal Dryden, and I used to be on the faculty of Atlanta University when it was called Atlanta University. And they would have. Uh, once a year for many years. Or at least for the time that I was teaching them, they would have what they call the May show and the May show was quite an exciting time for us in the art community because. They would have artists that would come from all over. Exhibit them their art all over and they would have a. But it it was, it was a juried show, but it wasn't a. It was, uh, it was all all African American. And it was big. I mean, it was very exciting too, because you'd have a chance to meet some of the famous artists. And and. So, well, that was the main thing was that it was really exciting to have. The May show, and it was always at a very nice time of the year and. That's that's when. Black artists. I got to know some of the black artists. And know of them. And as I said, it was, uh, it was. So far as I was concerned. It was a juried show. And I don't know that they had any more juried shows. I'm not sure that I'm pronouncing it correctly, but. What do you know? What years was that? Let's see. 1949 It was no, no, no. It was later than that. Uhm, because you see, I finished Graduate School. In 1951 at 6. So around those years. It was so it was enough. I would say it was in the 60s. Because I was. Teaching there in the 60s. OK. And was So what was so interesting about that art is that. The people. And the university. Didn't appreciate what it was. And the people who had it, who were responsible for it. They would say, well, would you like to have some art in your office and I would then of course I said yes. And so I ended up with a. A couple of really nice pieces. Somebody I can't think of her name that she's. Dunk Tina Dudley when Tina. I guess Tina must have gotten a grant or something. To reassemble. This may show materials. And in so doing. She was going all around the campus trying to find the heart I ended up. And I really should, I should I. I felt so guilty because I had it. And on the other hand. Now the folks carried there, so I mean they don't even know where it is. And so she was telling I was talking to Tina about it. And she says, well, she was able to get. A lot of it back, but she says like. Doctor, doctor. Clement's granddaughter. Has a couple of pieces that are important. And they won't give them back because they said that. The school presents them too. Two doctor Clement. Well, I'm not. I'm not dealing with that. And I certainly wouldn't have turned mine in either, but. Once I found once it was known that I had. What was the latest name that I had? Voice Mabel Jones Yeah, Lois maloud on. So I had to turn mine. I had to turn mine in. No, but you know you did you. Bought a coffee. Rosalie yeah, that's what I have. That's what I have in the in the. Family room What's your name? Coffee there he called himself coffee barely. But it was the name of it was Rosalie. And he described her. As a tenant farm woman from Alabama. And I told him I just had to have Rosalie because she was so reflective. Of how I felt about my life at the time. And it was a. So Tina was over here not too long ago. And she told me that I need to have it clean. And I hadn't. I was so busy trying to get well I didn't get involved in having it clean. There's still time. Tell me about you have a lot of Floyd Coleman's, but how did you come? Back Floyd Coleman Well, now I don't want you to quote this because it is just a little dirt. It's not dirt, but. My friend Madeline. Was dating Floyd Coleman? She didn't appreciate his heart. And I had just moved here. And she had. She didn't appreciate his heart and I said, Oh yeah, I said, well, thought, let me let me propose something he said what? I said, what about? Letting me have some some pieces. And yours. And I'll put them on my walls in the living room. And then when people come by, I'll tell them that it's for sale. And he said that's a good idea, so that's what we did. So I picked out the. The art that match my want. Didn't match my slip covers. That's how I got my collection started and I got several pieces of blue at Colemans. Which I still have. Donna yeah. But she didn't appreciate his eye. Well, you said you you almost missed your rent payment one time about. Oh yeah, well, see what happened was. I'm I'm. I've I've been notoriously. Money manager. And I've done pretty well for Porter raising four children. And having them do the things that y'all were doing. Then you could understand why I wouldn't be running short of money. And so one time. But I always managed to pay my. Pay my mortgage. But this particular time? They had Floyd was gonna he'd taken a job happened. He went to Howard and. He he said, you know, if you just come and get all anything in here you want by just go by selected. And then you can. We'll just see how much the whole. Group would be. And so that's what I did. I selected the. What I have? And so. And so he gave me, we, he, and I agreed on a price. And so I just. Didn't pay my mortgage that month. I just gave in now 'cause he was going. That was and the reason I was able to do that was because. He was able to, he was. Moving to Howard and Wade and you said he died. Well, he was a nice guy. But it didn't, I guess Madeline. Well, I guess you just said I'm glad you like it. So, but what was that roofing he created? It it was sort of like a colloquium or something. That was kid, you know it was black. The black artists were involved. Yeah, I think that's it. I think it's they hold it every year at Howard. It's called the James Porter colloquium. I think that's the name of it. And I think they're going to continue it. Now they'll be deployed Coleman. Yes, I don't know how they'll name it, but it's still. It's an important meeting of African American art historians, and so I think the college recognizes that, and they're going. To yeah, well, that's that that's. But I, she said I don't see none today and I didn't get it. I mean, you know it's just like me and chitlins. I love chitlins, but I don't convince I don't try to convince anybody else. Because I love him and. And I heard that it was the guy down here at the at the lower part of a hedler That man is that they says. Chinese as him, but she they said his children are just out of this world. So I I got there. Before it gets warm, I gotta go and get at least one. Well, let me ask you one more question on the interview. Tell me about toting privileges. In terms of your your mom in Richmond. Oh, you mean in terms of? What is totem privileges? That's, uh, that that goes back to slavery. And what what would happen is? They made the slaves. If you had a good my slave master. Ah, and you had any good friend of the cook? Then what you would do is. She would give you what they call toting privileges, and so Miss Ira. And she had a new that it was my mother, and so she would just. Uh, give us a big humongous plate. He would be food on that plate. Last us for almost a week. So is this during the Depression? 'cause I Isaiah had a question about for one of his research papers. What was it like for you during the Great Depression in Richmond? I don't know because I was young enough. Not to be shy, I was shield from that. See, the depression was in the 30s. When I was a kid. What neighborhood did you grow up in? Well, one part of it was the lease St. And Lee St. The lower part of Lee St. Which is it like a bottom Richmond is kind of healing, and so this was sort of like at the bottom of the hill and the. The university, the Medical School of Virginia. Has taken over all that area. OK. And so it's all the University of Virginia. But it's also. Richmond, there's another school that's a Richmond school is that it's almost like. Mars no would be Mars. Oh Virginia union. No, Virginia Union is a private school. I don't know why there's still in existence tonight. 'cause your uncle graduated from Virginia Union. And he was a minister. Henry James That was his name. But he also was a librarian. And so he. He ended up with a job. What was? It was a job at Virginia, no at. Fayetteville State Teachers College. That was that I realized that was a good job because he was paid by the state. Let's do this. What? What jobs did your mother have? I saw I've seen the pictures of her from the 1920s and she looked like a. Flapper and all. She was laughing. What what did she? What did she? What jobs does she have? Well, my mother was the kind of person, unfortunately. They didn't have a lot of. Confidence in herself. And so she. My uncle. Moyd her to come down to Bethune Cookman. Because Bethune cookman. If you had a fact like you had a relative that you were. Then why did you go to school? You could go there for another. And also. Uh, there. I mean, my uncle. Wanted her to. Come too. But soon, Copeland. And I had a chance to meet Mrs Basone. And I also remember now I don't know where I got this from so I don't know whether I should be quoted on this or not. But for some reason I tell the story. I sat on the lap of Mrs pursue. And she said to me. That you. Well, remember that you. There's two things you need to get, I think that's what she told me. And one of them is a good education. And the other one is. To see to it that your children get a good education. Now I'm not sure that. She told me that about getting my children get an education, but I do remember. Her I think I remember her telling me. We needed to get the main thing we needed to get as a. That's your way out, that's I think she said. Well, tell me this why couldn't you? You grew up in Richmond why didn't you attend the University of Virginia? Because the University of Virginia was, it was not integrated. You do. That's why they would let us. That's why they would allow us to go too. Have different schools throughout the country. 810 But yeah, the state of Virginia paid because. If they were, if there were courses. That they did not that were not available for black people. Doing that error. That was in the early. The late early 50s And what they would do is. You could have a. You had you really actually had? Ah, your tuition but difference. And your tuition. Between what it would cost Foster? For me to go to University of Virginia. And so that's what they did, they pay. They went as stupid leap. So you could pick any school and which one did you pick? Uh, I picked Spelman and. And Atlanta university. Or one last question, tell me about the you got. So you lived in Richmond and you had to get to Atlanta. Where did you? How did you get here, and what was the name of that mode of transportation? And then, where did you stay? Well, you have here. I stayed with my grandmother for a while. She had she fixed up a nice little room for me. But I want I was trying to ask you about the chicken bone express. What was that? Oh yeah, that was fun. Say, say the whole thing. OK, what would happen is? The black students. Who lived in the north and C we did have. Quite a few students. In fact, they tell me that's one of the reasons that Atlanta University has survived. Oh, Atlanta. So it's now Clark Atlanta University, but they said one of the reasons that that that school has survived is because. The children of the alumna. I'll go into coming back to that school. And if they didn't have that. They probably. There's a. It's a broader enough. I love that base. But you told me about the experience, your experience you had. You get there by train and where should what was that like? Yeah, I see. Oh, that was fun. Well, what what did y'all do? OK, what we did was. The students. So we we had students come in from Connecticut all the way down. And when they got to the Mason Dixon line. Then they had to. Get get in the cars that were. It's raining. The train yeah they have no planes. I mean they had the blame but we didn't and so we would all so so the people who we knew they would get on and and at the Mason Dixon line. And of course. You know, everybody talked about that how. Yeah, I remember my mother used to always. Make me a shoebox. And she would have the fried chicken and. She always had the same thing. I loved it. Fried chicken. Couple of pieces of fruit. A piece of cake. She had at least three pieces of chicken already. Bride in the in the scheanette. My mother wasn't much of a role person so. She usually had some. White bread, did I say? And they call that. So did a lot of people have that kind of food prepared for them? Yeah, everybody had a box. Just go to the dining car. 'cause they wouldn't let us. And then my daddy, my father started working. It was interesting. Yeah, that was. That's an interesting thing that happened to me. My father started working as a. But the railroad was Seaboard railroad. He could. Once everybody was sleep you know, I mean. The head man was sleep. He would arrange for me to sleep in a sleeper. Clothes outfits you know they knew what was empty. And so I used to have a chance he's sleeping and sleeping and then later on. Things got a little bit better. And then they would have a curtain. That's separated depending on how many black folk going to eat. They would have a curtain that they would separate. Us from the white vote. Then like. I don't like it. And so you know The thing is interesting about. Integration is so stupid. Then they spent a whole lot of money. Trying to separate us. But we. But there were those of us who had sense enough. Our families had sense enough. Let us take advantage of it. 'cause some of my friends got their degree from Columbia. That's no slouch. That's right. But you know? I think. I don't know how to say it, but. And I don't want to say it to anybody but you. You know we had some benefits from. From that crap. That's those of us who had sense enough to know how to use it. I mean we we knew it was. Illegally and they had it all in the courts and. Sarah Good Marshall was busy. He was very busy with his work with the NAACP. And he was. So we knew. That you know. In the courts it was illegal. That didn't mean that we just stopped out what we? Were doing, you know? OK well yes. OK. You got a lot out of me. Yeah, I got a lot of ideas. OK, well thank you ma'am. OK, so this is. Uh, uh. Thursday, Thursday, February, the 13th day before Valentine's Day. So we did a interview with love, OK, all right. OK. This is Tony Bingham from Birmingham, AL. OK, that's it.

Artist Andrew Scott shares memories of his mother, Jeannette Scott. 

Ruth Jeannette Scott, is my mother my mother is probably the most dynamic person that I've ever met in my life because she was always charting her own path and always going at about 1000 miles a second through her journey broad strokes my mother was an educator she was she taught in New York City public system for over 20 years she was a minister nor gained minister first in the Pentecostal church then later in the African American Episcopal Church and her ministry was rooted in service you know really truly and service on Thanksgiving before we ate dinner we fed someone on Christmas before we you know open the boxes that contain clothing we gave clothes to someone else and that was sort of like the breed and contacts for per her Christianity and later life became a pastor and but she was also very active politically in New York and some of it was through organized through the church but a lot of it was just she was just that kind of kind of lady she was very very very very dynamic person I don't know if I've shared this often but my father died down about 14 years old and this is a typical for understanding Scott this is a typical way of understanding the father died about 14 and shortly after he died we moved out of our home and put an Ave in Brooklyn because I think she was just dealing with the the ghost and absence and you know presence of my father and our house which is sort of like the family homestead and she just needed to get out and so she took an apartment we took an apartment we moved to another part of Brooklyn and when we got all the furniture move clothes put away and things like that she called me to sit around for for sit down in the living room and she said to me this almost exactly what I'm try remember she said my husband's dead she said you're not my husband there's some things I want to do in this life that I'm gonna do and you can either come along or you can watch me and so one of the things like I'm going to go to the kitchen and I'm going to cook and make food from time to time it would be a good idea for you to follow me into the kitchen and learn how to do some of these things because the last thing I'm going to worry about is what you're having for dinner and my mother you know she pursued pursued degree started as a paraprofessional eventually earned her masters and education all while holding jobs and doing all those things raising a family and I was always tagging along when I became a parent the one piece of advice that she gave to me what's that don't worry about your kids they just go along and that was my life that was my life you know following Ruth Scott around as she walked through life and accomplished the things that she wanted to do and she was clearly you see any sort of like drive in me it's about maybe 15 to 20% of what I was exposed to throughout my life and I sort of and I appreciate the fact that she was one of many really incredible woman that I had in my life to inform my journey now leave it there

The sound piece contains the abstracted audio recording of changing a diaper. The abstraction aims to reflect the moment of isolation. Changing diapers is commonly seen as a very repetitive and uninteresting activity, however, for mothers and babies these are moments of opportunity, and everything can happen. Changing a diaper can be a moment of play, and joy, or in contrast (and depending on the circumstances) can be a very stressful and tiring task. No matter the feeling of the moment, changing a diaper is always a moment of connection between babies and mothers. A connection that usually happens in public restrooms when outside or in the baby’s or mother’s room when at home. Unfortunately, this opportunity for connection is sometimes limited for fathers whose public restrooms are sometimes not prepared for this task. Public Women’s restrooms still work as public spaces that remind society who is in charge of this task and who isn’t. The audio aims to remind us of the different ways in which mothers connect with babies, even in moments of isolation and repetitive tasks. 

There is no dialogue, only a baby babbling.

Liz Trosper's artwork in contribution to Elaine Luther's ongoing public participation art project Clocking in for Unpaid Labor.  

Anthotype, dandelion-leaf emulsion on watercolor paper. Digital self-portrait. 

Rachel Finkelstein's artwork in contribution to Elaine Luther's ongoing public participation art project Clocking in for Unpaid Labor.  

Cynthia O'Neill's artwork in contribution to Elaine Luther's ongoing public participation art project Clocking in for Unpaid Labor. 

xtine burrough's artwork in contribution to Elaine Luther's ongoing public participation art project Clocking in for Unpaid Labor.  

xtine burrough's artwork in contribution to Elaine Luther's ongoing public participation art project Clocking in for Unpaid Labor.  

The curator for Mother’s Room writes that the exhibition is an interrogation of space design with the potential to disrupt systems of domination. This notion relates directly to a body of work that my son, Theo, and I have created over the past ten years around our relationship. Within the images, we explore the notion of power, longing, loss and Love. Some of the questions that I grapple with in the work are, “How does power influence the relationship between the Mother and Child? Do Power and Domination mean the same thing? Does the Power dynamic, and/or the ability to Dominate shift within a Mother-Child relationship? Does gender identity and expression influence Power and/or the ability to Dominate within a Mother-Child relationship? I have spent my life fighting against domination in all ways, and being a Mother has allowed me to explore power/domination dynamics from an entirely different position/dimension than pre-Motherhood. 

 

It was during that first shared gaze between me and Theo that I feel I truly experienced Love. And as our time together progresses, I find myself exploring my shifting identities through his gaze (and lack thereof) upon me. I have consistently wondered what he experiences when looking at me (or refusing to look at me). I wonder if he is Seeing me or merely Looking at me. And as he rapidly grows into an adult, acquiring a more complex and nuanced language than when he was in Kindergarten, the possibility of asking Theo to articulate what he feels when he is Seeing/Looking at me becomes a reality. And I am not sure how I feel about that potentiality. 

 

One of the many lessons my relationship with my son has brought to me is that “not Looking,” does not mean “not Loving;” that “not Looking,” does not mean “not being Seen.” As a photographer, the differences between Looking and Seeing are subtle, but profound. And through years of self-exploration, I have learned of the importance for children to experience being Seen and that this feeling, or lack thereof, can shape the way a human lives and experiences the rest of their life. Therapists have clearly documented that the feeling of not being seen consistently by a caregiver is significantly traumatizing for a child. As a result, many spend their inner (and some their outer) lives yearning for someone to See them. 

 

Shifting to the intersectional nature of Motherhood, as a Mother—the notion of domination comes up regularly as I think about/reflect on/navigate the ways I engage with the world and with the various communities I come into contact with. Giving birth (to a son) profoundly changed the way I interpret my pre-existing identities and engage with new areas of intersectionality that were born along with him. In the past, I always saw value in being a woman who could move between gender groups quite easily without changing the way I expressed my gender, as I was not overtly feminine or masculine - but somewhere in between. However, once I became a Mother, my identity as a woman became much more concrete within myself and in turn, in the way I engaged with people and the way people engaged with me. Inwardly, I began to see myself as a powerful Mother and Woman—not at all as gender neutral—as the act of Mothering required a powerfulness that was entirely new to me. This was a role, or actually a feeling, that I had not detected before in others, possibly because (at least for me) it emerges from a deeply internal space where words cannot reach or describe. 

 

My son is my baby, but as a 16-year-old, 6’1” human wearing size 12 shoes—he is most definitely physically larger and stronger than me now. I can no longer merely tell him what to do, I have to explain to him why I need him to do something—to complete a task. There is compromise and discussion now, concepts that I did not navigate along the course of my life unless I was in a precarious situation for work (in various conflict zones). I am grateful for this opportunity. And also certainly daunted by it. 

 

The title comes from a well-known quote from Rumi: “The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” It has been my mantra for many years. 

 

Photographs of the artist's mother, Marymal Morgan Dryden, from the artist's collection. Courtesy of Praisehouse.art.

This is an excerpt from Anne Truitt's DAYBOOK, The Journal of an Artist, as read by Maryam Ashkaboosi. 

I am wondering now if some third person who is neither artist nor mother, as yet unknown, unnameable has developed behind my back