Artist Residency in Motherhood
September 2012 - May 2015 / durational project / website, motherhood
In 2012 I founded An Artist Residency in Motherhood — a structured, fully-funded artist residency that takes place inside my own home and life as a mother of two young children.
Artist residencies are usually designed as a way to allow artists to escape from the routines and responsibilities of their everyday lives. An Artist Residency in Motherhood is different. Set firmly inside the traditionally “inhospitable” environment of a family home, it subverts the art-world’s romanticization of the unattached artist, and frames motherhood as a valuable site, rather than an invisible labour for exploration and artistic production.
As the first artist-in-resident-in-motherhood I aim to embrace the fragmented mental focus, exhaustion, nap-length studio time and countless distractions of parenthood as well as the absurd poetry of time spent with young children as my working materials and situation, rather than obstacles to be overcome.
The following works are amongst those made during my tenure as Artist-in-Residence-in-Motherhood;
The Distance I Can Be From My Son
All Scissors in the House Made Safer
63 Objects from My Son's Mouth
On Mother's Day, 2016 the project was passed along to new residents. Visit www.artistresidencyinmotherhood.com for details.
An Artist Residency in Motherhood (2012 - 2015) was funded by a grant from The Pittsburgh Foundation/Heinz Endowments and a Sustainable Art Foundation Award. It was supported in kind by Pittsburgh Filmmakers and Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse.