The Labourer Revealed, a Comprehensive Support Paper for the Exhibition, A Way of Knowing
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Abstract
A Way of Knowing is an exhibition comprised of nine 3-dimensional mixed media sculptures, made with an emphasis on process and production using traditionally feminine practices and materials, such as sewing and ceramics. The sculptures in the exhibition all reference my experience as a woman and mother in the context of domestic space. These sculptures explore the idea of female presence and empowerment, through the acts of maternal care and labour, to celebrate the practice of feminist mothering. This series began with an obsessive practice as a labourer, but explores my identity as a mother, through the lens of “women’s work.” First, I contextualize my process within the social structure of my childhood in 1970s rural Alberta. In childhood, I was taught by my mother to use my hands productively. Domestic and craft practices such as sewing and pottery set the foundation for my love of all materials and the joy of making art. In the second section of this paper, I explore my role as a mother and the practice of feminist mothering as a means to ensure equality and empowerment. My research is focused on women both as labourer and maternal feminine subject. More specifically, I am interested in how a woman’s identity is formed through a motherline, through which empowerment is found in a domestic space, by feminist mothering. By examining my feminist motherline though my mother’s history and mine, a brief introduction into second wave feminism, and the artwork of artists such as Martha Rosler, Aganetha Dyck, and Judy Chicago, I endeavour to position my art practice within a larger context of women’s history in western society in the 20th and 21st centuries. Thirdly, I contextualize the exhibition A Way of Knowing, with my identity as an artist, and offer a metaphor for “connection, wholeness and strength,”2 to a feminist motherline to honour the practice of feminist mothering. 2