As some of you know, I’ve been working on an art project for the last month called, “Clocking in for Unpaid Labo[u]r Canada” hosted by Jennie Johnston and Shamina Senaratne. I heard about the project through my virtual artist friend Liz Ruest.
Twenty twenty four for me has been all about collaboration. Looking for ways to team up with other artists and outside-the-box thinkers to push and disrupt cultural norms and ways of being. I’ve been so lucky to have so many opportunities come my way.
And so, here is the first offering! I’m calling this diptych, “In and out and never out time cards”.
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The Artwork
I struggled with this work because collaborative art projects means working within a prescribed framework. Staying inside the lines to an extent. I was struggling to retain the integrity of the template of the time card as one does! Time cards are inherently limiting and static! But, as I explored the topic of clocking in through my writing, I saw the strange freedom in the symbol of a time card. Having something to show the work I was doing. Something to show someone all the time I put in as a mother. And probably most importantly, something to show that I was clocking out every day.
I flip flopped a lot on how I viewed the time card. As a mother of young kids, I felt abandoned by the card. It didn’t include me. I was working all the time. If I did have “time off” I was still on call, emotionally attached, and mentally aware of the needs of my kids. And “time off” for early years mothers simply means collapsing on the bed and falling asleep.
Mothering for me was never ending. No off switch. If I was given the chance to leave the house I would often feel too tired to make plans. I do remember heading out to Chapters on rare evenings to get some alone time. Books are my happy place!
And this is where things clarified. My work as a mother was all encompassing. It oozed outside the lines. It burst through the seams. There was no container to hold all of it. I wasn’t able to depict the expansiveness of mothering in these images. I wasn’t able to be as wild and bizarre as I felt inside. But I believe the weaving, the day and night colour scheme and the blotting out of the word, “out” made it clear in the first piece that caregiving is all consuming.
In the second piece, the pregnant mother with the “in/out” stripe on her body feels more like breath to me. I breathe in my baby and I breathe out my baby. The in/out is not about coming and going. It’s about constancy. It’s about being in the impossible. Being in the place of endless needs and never never enough hands or hearts.
Keeping a baby and mother alive in those early days and weeks is beyond overwhelming for me. And when I asked other mothers living with disabilities how they felt, the resounding overwhelm was palpable. I look forward to sharing their words in further writing.
Stages of making
I landed on mixed media with paper, paint, birch bark, and some tissue for some stuffing. I should have cried on those tissue’s before filling her belly and breasts right? She’s white yes. She’s using all her spoons to meet the needs of others and she’s either screaming or yawning (both check out).
Some photo’s of this past week’s making sessions. The third stuffed crocheted doily piece was an attempt to say, “I don’t fit in your time card slot machine!”
I love the below image of her body held together with clothespins and clips. She is falling apart. She’s literally working in her sleep! She needs all the clothespins she can get to stay in tact! Can you feel those emotions? The way her body is doing everything on autopilot. The way her body is a machine that pours blood, sweat, tears, milk and also is constantly breaking down, malfunctioning, stopping all together because things aren’t working for her.
The last piece to this bold exploration into the world of caregiving, are the artists and creative matrix weavers out in the world speaking their truth. They are calling out our culture, our time card holders. They are calling out the bullshit of unpaid labour and invisibility. They are calling out the art and education world who think that children or caregiving doesn’t actually exist for us. Showing them how imbalanced the institutions are in male dominance. Asking these hard questions. Who is the system for? Who benefits? Who gets to be seen and heard? Who gets to make decisions and at what cost?
I find it so difficult to calm my inner rage when I start writing about these issues. Are we speaking into a void? I believe not. If no one else, we, the caregivers are listening to each other. We are responding and we, ourselves will be the ones to create a new world.
Inspiration
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Further background into the work
This project was created by Chicago Illinois artist Elaine Luther in 2021, as she explored labour, domestic labour, and unpaid caring work. Expanding in the last three years, the project has now had multiple exhibits and many of the pieces submitted by artists across the United States will soon appear in a book.
Check out the Canadian work by the following artists:
Damn, I love this. The art pieces are good alone but your writing along side them is truly powerful.
You captured so much complexity in these two pieces! Thanks for sharing your process :)