Mothers Expressing: Sharing the Work

In October of 2009, We were pleased to kick off Visible Labor by telling the story of how Nita and Amber started this project with an exhibition at the Axiom Center for New and Experimental Media in Boston, MA.

 

We also had a conversation over tea.

During the exhibit, we invited two experts, Ana Villalobos, Brandeis sociologist, and Jenny Weaver, lactation consultant, to bring together knowledge around the work and physiology of caretaking. We asked questions, proposed ideas, and shared anecdotes about care-taking in our current economic culture. How can we shape a new economic model that is informed by gift economy ideals? Documentation of our conversation coming soon.

Our Guests:

Ana Villalobos received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and is currently a visiting research associate at Brandeis University. Ana's research and teaching focus on motherhood, and attempt to bring to light the often hidden connections between large-scale social forces and personal experience.

Jenny Weaver has been an OB/GYN RN for more than 20 years. She has worked at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant.

Exhibit Overview - Click to listen

With this exhibit, we hope to energize the enduring conversation around re-valuing the work of caretaking. We are using our personal stories and experiences as a gateway to the universal problem faced by caretakers everywhere – invisibility. Though they are essential to a civic society, the lives of caretakers are little understood and even less valued. Whether we are discussing compensation, social security benefits, public opinion, or quality control, it’s a job barely worth doing. Yet, a recent survey by salary.com estimates a mother’s work is worth $117,000 per year. And the human body, when broken down into fluids, tissues and germ fighting substances, is said to be worth more than $45 million – even more if you count the expensive hormones produced by a lactating mother!

Our multi-roles as mothers, partners, teachers, and artists have deeply influenced our artistic practice. For ten years, Amber has been researching family life. She has been photographing her own gay father-parented family as well as other LGBT, same sex parented families, and the "right to marry" movement. Amber writes, "As a woman, photographer, and mother working and raising children in the public, urban and domestic sphere, I am interested in how women want to be imaged within the matrix of workers, nurturers and the social network. My collaboration with Nita has allowed me to expand on my earlier work while also reshaping and refocusing my inquiries into new territory."

Nita spends every summer in Sicily with her in-laws; "It is a rich yet challenging experience for me, as Sicilian women are held precious yet limited by the traditions of an ancient culture. Their acceptance of the state of things amazes me - I am both awed by their resilience and disappointed by their lack of revolt." In an effort to soften the differences between Nita and the women around her, she has given gemstone pendants as a gift and performative act. The current manifestation of this project is a series of photographic images that capture the recipient surrounded by the information that binds them to their work. Please visit www.nitasturiale.com/pietrepreziose to find out more.

Our shared interests and supportive friendship have brought us to a place of action. We want to invite you to engage in the conversation, lobby for policy change, learn about the nature of the working body, and appreciate the aesthetic and conceptual beauty of caretaking. This invitation is not limited to mothers but that is our starting point. We realize in research and conversation that "Woman" and "Mother" is not a static or fixed identity - it comes in a multiplicity of forms, including trans mothers, adoptive mothers, work-at-home dads, grandparents, sisters and aunts, cooperative care-giving, etc. We hope our project will reach the inner feminist in everyone.

Begin your participation today by visiting our blog at www.visiblelabor.com:

Thank you,

Amber and Nita

October 2009

 

Visible Labor working body
A project of Amber Davis Tourlentes and Nita Sturiale
contact visiblelabor [at] artscience dot org for more info.

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