00:02 welcome everyone 00:05 thanks for standing by as we 00:08 have been experiencing technical 00:10 difficulties with going on facebook live 00:16 this is the virtual opening of the 00:19 anthropology of motherhood 00:21 culture of care art exhibition that's 00:24 showing at 00:25 carlow university art gallery and i am 00:28 so 00:29 excited to introduce you 00:32 to the curators of this incredible show 00:37 this exhibition is an exploration 00:40 of the right and rewarding work of 00:43 caregiving 00:44 and maternal feminisms among many other 00:47 things 00:48 um so i'm going to 00:52 introduce everyone just one moment 01:17 can you all see my screen 01:22 great so the carlow university art 01:26 gallery virtual opening 01:30 is during the time of the pandemic we're 01:33 just 01:33 kind of introducing the exhibition 01:36 you can view more on our website at 01:41 anthropologyofmotherhood.com 01:43 you can also schedule your visit with 01:45 the carlow university art gallery 01:48 to view all the amazing work in person 01:51 and that will be there through the end 01:52 of january 2021 01:57 so a little bit about the anthropology 02:00 of motherhood project 02:02 it is an ongoing curation of artwork and 02:05 design 02:06 that engages in the complex visual 02:09 material emotional corporeal and lived 02:13 experiences of motherhood 02:15 caregiving parenting nurturing 02:19 and maternal labor 02:24 so again for more information you can go 02:27 to carlow.edu 02:29 gallery to schedule a visit in person 02:33 and to practice safe social distancing 02:35 while you do so 02:39 so a little bit about our incredible 02:41 curators we have on the left hand here 02:44 fran flaherty she is the creator and 02:48 founder 02:49 of the anthropology of motherhood 02:51 project 02:52 she's a deaf artist living in pittsburgh 02:54 she's a first generation immigrant from 02:56 the philippines 02:58 her work is centered on issues 03:00 surrounding immigrant family relations 03:02 and assimilation maternal feminine 03:05 feminisms 03:07 disability aesthetics and social work 03:09 you can find out more about her on our 03:11 website 03:12 or on friend flaherty.com 03:15 and on the right we have dr amy bowman 03:19 mackelhon who currently serves 03:22 as the art program director university 03:25 art gallery director 03:26 and is an assistant professor in art 03:29 history 03:30 at carlow university in pittsburgh 03:34 where she curates transdisciplinary 03:37 justice oriented exhibitions and aims to 03:41 cultivate the gallery 03:42 as a space for experimentation 03:46 and dialogue she's the curator of this 03:48 current exhibition 03:50 and yeah just really incredible work you 03:53 should 03:53 if you've seen her previous exhibitions 03:55 that she's created in the space 03:57 really amazing stuff and right now i'm 04:00 actually 04:01 going to give it over to amy really 04:04 quickly so she can 04:06 um thank a few folks 04:10 thanks so much sarah that was an amazing 04:13 introduction and really appreciate it 04:14 and thanks to everyone who 04:16 is on the call again we apologize i 04:19 swear 04:19 we practice this so we're going to blame 04:21 facebook 04:23 for for our technical difficulties um 04:25 before we get started 04:27 i wanted to make sure to acknowledge a 04:29 few people that 04:31 helped make this exhibition uh what it 04:33 is 04:34 in addition to the amazing artists who 04:37 i'll list here 04:38 emily page armstrong sandra bocce 04:42 jamie bird crystal ann brown 04:45 tara fay valerie george 04:49 amy gilmore alex costu 04:53 lioness collective kim mcmahon 04:57 sue powers lindsay peck sherlom 05:00 sarah simmons and grace wong and the 05:03 atlantis collective artists 05:05 are olga brindar jessica moss and 05:08 kristen russo 05:10 and it so those are the amazing artists 05:12 that are being featured 05:13 in this exhibition and i also wanted to 05:16 acknowledge 05:17 uh people behind the scenes that helped 05:18 make this happen 05:20 so first i want to acknowledge katie 05:21 winter who it 05:23 was a former student of mine who's an 05:25 alum of carla university 05:27 in 2020 and she's currently 05:32 in the masters of arts administration 05:34 program at carnegie mellon university 05:37 and she was our curatorial assistant 05:39 this summer uh for friend and i and she 05:40 did an amazing 05:41 job and really helped us out i also want 05:44 to acknowledge 05:45 josh ice who was our installation 05:48 guru who helped hang and light 05:51 the show and uh josh is a 05:54 light and installation artist he also uh 05:57 works at the mattress factory 05:59 i would also like to acknowledge emily 06:01 armstrong who is also a parlor 06:03 university 2020 alum 06:05 who also assisted as an intern this 06:07 summer and 06:09 and uh is featured in the exhibition as 06:11 well so it's a big 06:12 a big thrill to have her in the show and 06:15 lastly i just wanted to 06:16 uh acknowledge the students that helped 06:19 with the 06:21 uh the show and the installation and the 06:23 process all the 06:24 administration work uh in my curating 06:27 for justice class and those students are 06:29 sarah smilowitz 06:30 anna-marie barberka and alexis westwood 06:33 and lastly i just want to thank carla 06:35 university 06:36 i want to thank the crowley university 06:38 college of arts and sciences 06:39 for um funding the gallery and for dean 06:43 matt gordley who was 06:44 particularly had had the vision and was 06:47 very adamant that we continue to have 06:49 physical shows uh during the pandemic 06:52 and so 06:53 i really appreciate everybody's patience 06:55 as we're kind of embarking on this new 06:57 modality 06:58 of both the kind of a digital presence 07:01 as well as a physical presence 07:02 and hopefully as we move along we'll 07:04 become more 07:05 uh become a better hand at it 07:08 and then i wanted to also read a 07:10 statement um 07:12 you might be familiar with statements 07:14 when you go to 07:15 museums and if there's content that's 07:18 either 07:18 graphic or if even if there's flashing 07:21 lights 07:21 you might have some type of trigger 07:23 warning some type of warning 07:25 of you know for people physically 07:28 and so i thought long and hard about a 07:31 kind of statement that would be needed 07:32 for this show 07:33 and i realized that the statement itself 07:36 that the fact that i would have to write 07:37 something 07:38 like it uh to to do a disclaimer 07:41 for a show like this uh you know i would 07:45 say 07:45 was a bit frustrating um given 07:47 everything that that is in the show is 07:49 is a 07:49 natural processes of life so here's what 07:52 i wrote and 07:53 um i you know i like to think of it as 07:56 not just a please be advised statement 07:58 but it's something that um you know it 08:01 takes a stand for the artwork and for 08:03 the ideas that the show 08:05 is about this exhibition attends to the 08:08 bodily experiences of motherhood 08:10 and caregiving which are often 08:12 stigmatized in western culture 08:15 as stuff as such there is imagery that 08:17 represents female reproductive anatomies 08:20 childbirth breastfeeding and the 08:22 experience both spiritual and corporeal 08:25 of a mastectomy it is the undertaking of 08:28 this 08:28 exhibition and gallery to facilitate a 08:30 space for dialogue 08:32 conversation and discourse in order to 08:35 countervail social injustices 08:37 including but not limited to the 08:39 stigmatization 08:40 objectification and marginalization of 08:43 women 08:44 embodying our social our mission of 08:46 social justice carl university's mission 08:48 of social justice 08:49 this exhibition foregrounds the lived 08:51 experience and visual representation 08:54 of motherhood caregiving and the ethics 08:56 of care 08:58 so welcome and i'm very excited uh about 09:02 the exhibition the conversation that we 09:04 will be having with my 09:05 good friend and collaborator fran 09:08 flaherty 09:09 and with that i want to throw to fran 09:11 and i was hoping 09:12 uh if you could fran if you could talk 09:14 to us about the anthropology of 09:15 motherhood project 09:17 um its origins and sort of uh 09:20 how it's evolved and where you see it 09:22 going 09:28 hi i think i just unmuted myself 09:31 did i yes it 09:35 okay thank you thank you amy and um 09:38 thank you 09:39 for that um that statement in the 09:43 beginning i think that's really 09:44 important as well 09:45 um being that the the whole exhibition 09:48 is about 09:49 the culture of care it means that we 09:51 have to think about um 09:52 put ourselves in other people's shoes 09:55 and um 09:56 think about where people are coming from 09:58 instead of what we 09:59 want to put out think about how we 10:04 can help people through certain 10:06 experiences 10:07 and i think that's a very poignant way 10:10 to start the show by saying that they 10:12 are there are 10:13 um some images that might be disturbing 10:16 to um to the audience um 10:20 but it seems like caregiving 10:23 or the act of care it's not a very 10:27 um 10:30 beautiful or sexy thing you know i mean 10:32 just like aesthetically speaking you 10:34 know when you're taking care of a baby 10:36 you have to 10:36 change a diaper that's just kind of like 10:39 oh you know or if you're taking care of 10:40 a sick 10:42 um that kind of thing so it's natural to 10:44 expect that the 10:45 the show like this would um 10:48 would have some of those images but i 10:51 think 10:52 what's more interesting is that despite 10:55 this 10:55 despite a lot of um uncomfortable images 10:59 that we might 11:00 see in the culture of care the artists 11:02 in the show 11:03 have been able to take 11:06 these visuals this this artifacts of 11:10 care 11:11 and created them into fine art and just 11:14 created them 11:15 in in a way that's just beautiful and 11:18 easy to present 11:19 and um uh compelling 11:23 images um so yes but uh 11:26 the story the genesis of anthropology of 11:30 motherhood 11:33 of course starts with my um my first 11:36 child 11:37 who was born in 1998 11:41 it was a time um that 11:45 in my life that i was um trying to 11:49 figure out how to 11:54 express the deep 11:57 need or the deep the deep value that i 12:01 felt as a mother um every 12:05 mundane thing that i did i had i valued 12:08 very much 12:09 whether it was changing a diaper or you 12:11 know um 12:12 uh feeding giving a bath and things like 12:16 that but it is 12:18 um it was so 12:22 as you're having children and you're 12:23 going through life or even if you're 12:24 taking care of a 12:26 an elderly relative or a younger 12:29 relative or an even if you're a teacher 12:31 the act of giving care is just it's very 12:34 intense 12:35 and so we forget the small little 12:37 details of what happens 12:38 in between and the very first 12:41 anthropology of motherhood 12:43 which is all about postpartum like how 12:47 how you're dealing with 12:50 newborns is all about those little 12:53 experiences 12:54 that um that are these little valuable 12:58 experiences that we just sort of like 13:00 they just kind of fizzle out in our 13:01 memory um whether it's you're looking at 13:03 your child 13:05 lovingly in the eye for 10 seconds while 13:07 you know 13:08 while they're you're nursing or giving 13:10 them a bottle or things like that 13:12 um so that was the the start of the 13:15 concept 13:16 and it's evolved over the years to 13:20 um include 13:24 many other acts of caregiving and in in 13:27 the larger concept 13:28 what that means what is the the micro of 13:31 taking care of children or being a 13:32 mother and the macro of what that means 13:35 of being a caregiver or being part um 13:39 being a steward of 13:42 of the planet a steward for others 13:46 um and what kind of labor 13:51 that this requires 13:54 of us and it sounds like a very lonely 13:57 thing it sounds like you know as i was a 14:00 stay-at-home mom for five years 14:02 and i found it to be very lonely 14:05 i found it no changing my child's diaper 14:08 did not give me fulfillment 14:10 although i wanted to do it and i needed 14:12 to do it 14:13 but exploring this 14:16 allowed me to see that most of us 14:20 who are caregivers are living this life 14:23 um alone by ourselves 14:27 but we relate to each other 14:30 and then that's kind of the culture 14:31 that's come out here in the united 14:34 states at least and from what i'm seeing 14:36 so the shows develop into 14:39 a um a uh 14:43 both an aesthetic and a um 14:46 functional installation where i set up 14:49 these 14:49 installations for nursing mothers to 14:52 come 14:52 um in like big events such as the three 14:56 rivers arts festival uh 14:57 it was a special place with art 15:01 um for nursing mothers to come and nurse 15:04 their babies and make them feel special 15:06 but as we were going through 15:07 all of this i realized that we really 15:10 needed to expand 15:12 the meaning of care and motherhood um 15:16 it's not all about mothers and babies 15:18 obviously otherwise 15:21 that would be very boring um 15:27 it's time that we redefine what it 15:29 really is 15:31 to be a caregiver and what that culture 15:34 of care 15:34 is um and so the the 15:37 the concept of anthropology of 15:39 motherhood 15:40 is always about highlighting 15:44 giving value to the mundane acts of 15:47 caregiving 15:48 not only from a mother child perspective 15:50 but through 15:51 a more macro perspective what does that 15:54 mean 15:55 and how important 15:59 is it to our existence 16:05 does that make sense amy yeah it makes 16:08 sense 16:08 fran of course it does um 16:12 well i wanted to touch on the fact that 16:15 kind of the 16:15 the initial idea for this uh show the 16:18 idea of 16:19 the show was actually very um in many 16:21 ways novel 16:23 in the sense that you were really trying 16:26 to 16:27 create a space that was both 16:31 a space for aesthetic contemplation 16:34 which is typically what a museum or 16:35 gallery 16:36 functions as but also transgress 16:40 that idea and instead of it being a 16:42 transgression 16:43 in a negative way it was a transgression 16:46 in a positive way 16:48 to then frame it around a space 16:51 uh that even though it is kind of 16:54 legally mandated in workplaces for 16:57 instance that there be 16:59 a designated area for pumping for 17:01 instance 17:02 um and now you'll see you know in 17:05 airports or when we used to go to 17:06 airports 17:07 uh various uh nursing little pods that 17:10 pop up uh and it's amazing that it has 17:13 taken this long to recognize that you 17:15 know maybe 17:15 it would be nice to have a comfortable 17:17 space for a baby and 17:19 a breastfeeding baby or a pumping mother 17:21 to go 17:23 but to reimagine that and center that as 17:27 part and parcel of the exhibition and of 17:29 art making and of creative practice 17:32 and of a generator of 17:35 um a generator of art in itself 17:40 i think is amazingly radical even though 17:42 i think the whole point of a show like 17:44 this 17:44 is that it shouldn't be radical right um 17:48 and so so why we work together amy 17:51 because you really get it 17:54 i work together because i love listening 17:57 to your ideas i love the 17:59 um just the ways in which 18:02 you come at things that i don't know 18:05 make the world more vibrant 18:07 um and more exciting and more 18:08 challenging um so that kind of brings us 18:11 to how 18:12 it got to carlo because unfortunately 18:14 this year 18:15 um the pandemic really kind of threw a 18:18 monkey wrench 18:19 and having that physical space 18:22 uh that hybrid space the space that is a 18:25 nurture a space of nurture and care um 18:28 for not only mothers but caregivers 18:31 generally 18:32 and they can they don't have to be women 18:34 um they can be men they can be 18:36 uh relatives they can be babysitters 18:39 uh all sorts of of you know identities 18:43 that that 18:43 rotate with that so the show ended up 18:46 being a virtual digitally native show as 18:48 part of 18:49 um pittsburgh uh three words arts 18:51 festivals uh 18:52 you know ex festival this year 18:55 due to the pandemic and 18:59 that though i think really highlights 19:01 the necessity of an exhibition like this 19:03 to 19:04 to think about caring and caregiving 19:06 especially in this moment 19:08 when it is front and center and it is 19:10 probably the most important thing 19:12 that can be occurring right now is that 19:14 centering 19:15 of caring for one another um and so 19:19 part so then as a result we were able to 19:22 to bring the show into physical 19:24 manifestation 19:25 at the carlow university art gallery 19:27 which has been 19:28 a thrill because the work was so amazing 19:30 and initially when the artist submitted 19:32 it 19:32 it was still kind of early-ish in the 19:34 spring where you know it could have gone 19:36 either way 19:37 like the three resorts festival was 19:38 still on the pandemic hadn't really 19:41 come into full bloom if you will um so 19:44 the fact that we're able to 19:45 uh you know have the the show 19:49 uh um give allow the the artwork 19:52 and the artist to have to have a space 19:55 uh um 19:56 and to be seen uh is is really exciting 20:00 but to that end i wanted to also say 20:02 that as i was reviewing a lot of the 20:04 artist statements about the work in the 20:06 show and we can 20:06 we'll delve into more of the specific 20:08 works and and 20:09 what they kind of are uh doing what 20:12 they're trying to say 20:14 a through line was all many of the 20:16 artists 20:17 talked about storytelling and while it 20:20 does seem 20:20 kind of obvious that artwork whether 20:23 it's visual art or music or performance 20:25 art or 20:26 um fiction obviously is essentially 20:30 has a narrative it it's built into it 20:34 um it's tel it's communicating something 20:36 the fact that 20:37 many of these artists uh ex when they 20:40 talked about their work 20:41 talked about the centrality of 20:44 storytelling 20:44 and i thought that was an interesting uh 20:47 connection and thread that kind of 20:48 stitched 20:49 a lot of these works together and i'm 20:52 going to throw to you fran but before i 20:53 do to kind of 20:54 kind of you know ruminate on this idea 20:57 of storytelling 20:58 and the fact that again it's centered in 21:00 how the artist represent 21:02 and articulate their their work is i 21:04 think it speaks to this notion of voice 21:07 and i think it speaks to this notion of 21:10 uh 21:10 having this experience of not just 21:14 mothering uh but also um 21:17 going through uh illness or being the 21:20 person that care gives 21:24 that that it usually is invisible labor 21:27 right and it's not talked about so 21:30 telling the story the telling of it is 21:33 then 21:34 very very important and um 21:37 and i guess i can't really emphasize um 21:40 just somebody who has worked in the 21:41 field 21:42 that this type of show does it doesn't 21:44 happen like there's not like all these 21:46 exhibitions on like 21:47 mothering and you know and caregiving 21:50 and uh and in fact there's a number of 21:54 the artists in this show have actually 21:55 talked about how when they started 21:57 making work 21:58 about their parenting their identity as 22:01 a caregiver 22:02 that a lot of times it was dismissed by 22:04 their professors or 22:05 uh by people that weren't really 22:07 interested in showing it and it's 22:08 because this is not 22:09 this this subject matter is not 22:11 something that's highly visible 22:13 and so um i think you know 22:16 the the aim for for me at least and i 22:19 think than for u2 fran is to make a show 22:21 like this not be radical 22:22 even though it is very radical um so 22:25 anyways i wanted to throw to you 22:26 in terms of like uh your your thoughts 22:29 fran on on this idea of storytelling and 22:32 its relationship to the project 22:35 well yeah i mean this is really how it 22:38 all started i was 22:40 telling my story of what it was what i 22:42 felt like 22:44 being a mother in particular 22:47 being a an immigrant mother in the 22:50 united states 22:52 and having a mixed-race children um 22:55 it was very important to really um 22:59 get into my uh vulnerability open up my 23:02 vulnerability to everyone's and so 23:05 when you're talking about the story when 23:07 you're telling the story of 23:09 how you are taking care of your children 23:12 you know the most valuable humans in 23:14 your life 23:16 you then begin to 23:23 let people into your life in such a way 23:27 that you know 23:30 it it makes us most vulnerable i i i 23:33 just feel like 23:35 one of the one of the um the 23:38 the statements that i wrote in my first 23:40 exhibit was this was the most 23:41 intimate exhibit that i've ever had 23:44 and in fact still the most intimate 23:46 artworks that i have made in the 23:48 beginning 23:49 and that was my the first anthropology 23:52 of motherhood where i had 23:57 preserved breast milk and resin and 23:59 turned into jewelry not just my own 24:02 breast milk but other women's breast 24:04 milk as well and 24:05 and so that was that was a way of 24:07 telling that story and 24:09 as we went along with the show 24:13 more stories started to come out like i 24:15 said in the beginning it felt very 24:16 lonely at first and then you realize 24:18 through 24:18 art right through the things that the 24:21 visual art of things that people make 24:23 we are sharing this narrative we all 24:26 have this 24:27 uh this very similar story there is 24:29 there is a common thread 24:31 um that runs through it and 24:35 to just reiterate what you said this is 24:37 not a subject 24:38 that is often seen as 24:42 high art or um art that is 24:46 worthy of museums 24:49 uh museum spaces uh and 24:52 the question is why why are we 24:56 in a situation where we cannot seem to 24:59 elevate the acts of caregiving or even 25:02 the sentiment of care 25:04 um you know i i've been in i 25:08 have an experience with a lot of 25:09 different artists 25:11 making collaborating making work 25:12 together and 25:14 um sentimentality 25:17 is not a good thing in 25:21 in artwork you know you don't want to be 25:22 that sentimental fool who makes like you 25:24 know 25:25 cutesy-wootsy work or whatever but 25:27 that's not 25:29 that's the the problem is we're thinking 25:31 that the culture of care or the acts of 25:33 care are sentimental things when in fact 25:35 they're just 25:37 they're um typical things in our life 25:40 that we need to do 25:41 as parents as children 25:46 and again the question is why is that 25:49 not more 25:49 important holistically in our lives 25:53 why do we not think about it when we are 25:56 in 25:56 our restaurants or businesses or um 25:59 you know school institutions we do not 26:04 put compassion in the forefront of our 26:08 minds when we're building 26:10 uh when we're building architecture 26:12 let's say or we're making business plans 26:15 or um any sort of like in building 26:18 utilities 26:19 you name it there we do not think 26:22 about the others or the most vulnerable 26:27 while we're doing it and that that's 26:30 what bothers me the most and that's why 26:32 i am so persistent with anthropology of 26:34 motherhood 26:35 because the message is to try to 26:39 incorporate this train of thought into 26:41 all the actions that we do whether it's 26:43 a business action an art action 26:45 as institutional action let's think 26:48 about 26:49 how we can best serve 26:55 the uh inclusively 26:58 before we decide on how 27:03 and how we go about things i like to 27:04 compare it with um 27:06 universal access or universal um design 27:09 where where you know architecture 27:12 architects they design a building that's 27:13 universally 27:15 universally accessible to people who 27:17 have mobility problems or 27:20 hearing loss or vision loss and things 27:22 like that 27:23 because if you start 27:27 forming concepts of institutions 27:31 um and spaces with that in mind 27:36 you tend to not exclude anybody when you 27:39 reach 27:40 a wider number a larger number of people 27:44 um so yes so the storytelling 27:48 our own very are very uh intimate 27:51 storytelling 27:53 will lead to in my point of view and 27:55 lead to that 27:56 where we're raising and creating people 27:59 of compassion 28:01 who will and then in turn 28:04 return this return this this this act of 28:07 caring or 28:08 feelings of caring 28:11 absolutely and i wanted to um you know 28:14 kind of 28:15 jumping off of your idea of universal 28:17 design 28:18 anna's somebody who is hearing impaired 28:20 who knows 28:21 what that who knows what it feels like 28:23 every day to walk into a space or to 28:25 encounter 28:27 uh things that uh people with hearing 28:30 would take for granted and to always be 28:33 um 28:34 you know things aren't designed for you 28:37 and it um i just heard on npr today that 28:40 the guggenheim 28:42 is actually doing this it's called uh 28:44 the mind's eye 28:46 in which they are narrating the 28:49 experience of walking into the 28:51 guggenheim 28:53 moving around the space encountering the 28:56 artworks 28:56 they're narrating it all through 28:58 language and um 29:00 they have actors coming in and um 29:03 performing essentially these these 29:06 narrations 29:07 and then the idea is that there it's 29:10 actually 29:11 made available as a 29:14 in place of going the experience of 29:17 going to the guggenheim 29:18 and that it actually um 29:21 while it's benefiting all of us right 29:23 now because 29:25 to go into a museum or to go into any 29:28 spaces 29:28 is dangerous and it is uh there's a 29:31 spectrum of danger 29:32 depending on um you know your own 29:36 uh kind of a position within the 29:38 vulnerability for covid 29:40 so now we're all in a position where we 29:42 have to think about 29:44 um where we go how we engage with things 29:47 what is safe and what is not 29:49 and this way of storytelling 29:53 like literally storytelling like i like 29:55 walking into the atrium of the gigahertz 29:58 was also provides more access and 30:01 universal design because with those 30:03 narrations somebody who's blind can then 30:05 um experience the guggenheim and even 30:07 someone who is deaf for instance 30:09 that uh can be translated 30:12 uh into a visual language or sign 30:16 for that person to experience so the 30:18 pandemic has forced us to put these 30:20 things 30:21 at the forefront and i also wanted to 30:23 talk about like 30:24 uh the whole idea of like the labor 30:26 aspect of it 30:28 and value and i wanted to do two things 30:31 and then kind of send it back to you 30:33 fran but i was going to read 30:34 um a statement uh 30:38 that was part of the the um the 30:41 curating statement for the show and then 30:44 point to one of the artists 30:45 uh whose works whose work is really much 30:48 tied into this 30:49 so in many societies the unpaid labor of 30:52 care is largely taken up by women 30:55 and the global pandemic of 2020 has made 30:57 this overlooked fact highly visible 31:00 whether it is revealed and attending to 31:02 children while in quarantine 31:04 caring for isolated older relatives 31:06 providing sustenance as essential 31:08 workers in grocery stores 31:09 or working on the front lines and 31:11 hospitals as healing professionals 31:13 women bear the brunt 31:16 postcolonial scholars cho hao juan 31:20 and ueno chizuko seek to de-gender 31:23 notions of care stating quote the labor 31:26 of caring can no longer be designated 31:29 the work of women cannot any longer be 31:32 free labor 31:33 nor can it be the cheapest kind of labor 31:36 some people are already living a 31:38 politics of care 31:39 that views the condition of depending on 31:42 others either as a form of humiliation 31:45 nor an invisible sacrifice but as a 31:48 right and rewarding work end quote 31:51 and i think this uh thinking about care 31:53 and labor 31:54 and value systems um and and the way in 31:58 which we attach 31:59 value to certain types of labor and we 32:01 don't see this 32:02 work or this uh this labor as um 32:06 as being a value and as being something 32:09 that's hidden 32:10 i think is a big part of this show so um 32:14 sarah i don't know if you can switch to 32:17 okay 32:18 so we have um two artists that i just 32:21 wanna 32:22 call our attentions to for this 32:24 particular topic 32:25 and i am new at maneuvering this gadget 32:28 so please bear with 32:29 me um crystal ann brown's 32:32 monument so play on monument it's 32:35 mom mommy mommy mint um that really 32:39 um takes the idea of like 32:43 of domestic work and 32:46 creates a monument out of it 32:48 monumentalizes it 32:50 memorializes it and um 32:53 what's striking about the work is the 32:55 ways in which 32:57 it plays with uh controlling chaos right 33:00 so it looks uh so just the stacking and 33:04 the height of it the scale 33:06 is um you know overwhelming and i'm sure 33:10 everybody has that feeling with the 33:11 mounds of endless laundry 33:14 um uh that that will build up in a home 33:17 especially a home with multiple people 33:19 in it 33:20 especially at home where half the people 33:22 can't do the laundry 33:24 and actually there's a really great 33:26 article on vox 33:27 about how laundry in particular has been 33:30 the one thing 33:31 that the modernization of the home 33:34 hasn't been able to eliminate and in 33:35 fact has made 33:37 more work so unlike a dishwasher for 33:40 instance 33:41 which takes away the labor of washing 33:43 dishes 33:44 laundry actually changed like washing 33:47 machines actually changed how we view 33:49 clothes and their cleanliness so in the 33:52 past 33:52 when people were wearing leather or wool 33:54 garments you actually couldn't wash them 33:57 because it would damage 33:58 the material so people didn't typically 34:01 wash their clothes frequently it wasn't 34:02 really until the late 19th century early 34:04 20th century 34:06 when some of those aspects of of 34:09 laundering 34:10 became mechanized and then the problem 34:12 was is that 34:13 uh it became easier it became cheaper 34:17 and then yet it didn't eliminate the 34:19 need to wash it and then also the 34:21 introduction of cotton 34:22 as a key kind of material for garment 34:25 and then we can have a whole 34:26 conversation too about cotton 34:28 and these systems of exchange and in 34:31 term and 34:32 and the uh product of enslaved uh 34:35 uh um enslaved people and all of the 34:38 politics and the raciality that are tied 34:40 into that but once 34:42 cotton became prevalent it needed to be 34:46 washed more 34:47 um and so and now we've gotten to the 34:49 point where 34:50 we don't wash less we wash more and 34:54 we are actually there's an expectation 34:55 that we don't have stains on our clothes 34:57 so like it has become socially 34:59 unacceptable to not 35:00 wash as frequently so anyway this i i 35:03 think like that article and then 35:04 like revisiting uh crystalline brown's 35:07 monument 35:08 is like this like uh never-ending growth 35:12 and uh you know explosion of of this 35:15 this form of labor um that is very much 35:18 tied to domestic labor the other thing 35:21 about it from like an art standpoint the 35:23 visual standpoint 35:24 is that she's really playing with two 35:26 like the the repetitions 35:28 and the gritted rigid formality of the 35:31 plastic 35:32 laundry baskets and that if any of you 35:34 have ever taken an art history class or 35:36 an art class the idea of the grid 35:38 the the the picture plane as a grid 35:42 it's very much tied into the history of 35:44 art especially into these like very 35:45 hyper masculine 35:47 modes of creating art whether it's 35:49 minimalism 35:50 or abstract expressionism and 35:53 and that and then also those are 35:55 mass-produced again ties into 35:58 kind of commercialism and 35:59 commodification and then that 36:01 in contrast to the um sort of chaotic 36:04 blob 36:05 of laundry that is um you know 36:08 unconstrained and bursting out of it as 36:10 it seems 36:12 and then another artwork that i wanted 36:14 to um 36:15 point our attention to at least when it 36:17 comes to this topic 36:18 is um amy gilmore is pushed and pulled 36:21 which are these two optic 36:22 objects right here i'll zoom into it in 36:24 a second 36:26 but they are two um chromed objects 36:29 and if any of you who have uh either 36:32 best fed 36:32 or pumped or fed a baby you'll recognize 36:35 these 36:36 as a chromed um breast pump uh shield 36:39 and valve 36:40 and as a bottle with a nipple 36:44 and in fact amy told me that when she 36:46 made this work 36:47 and she was in grad school at the time 36:49 her professor actually did not know 36:51 what the breast shield and valve was he 36:54 thought it was like a some type of 36:56 i don't know horn or amplification 36:58 system so she had to explain 37:00 um explain that to him but she talks 37:02 about 37:03 how her work reflects the process of 37:05 archiving and 37:06 often devalued routine uh and about 37:10 motherhood 37:11 in general and accentuate her innate 37:14 desire this is these are the artists 37:15 words to cling 37:16 to both the materials and objects that 37:18 emphasize the necessity of letting go 37:20 which is a play on 37:22 uh when you're you're breastfeeding or 37:24 pumping the the let down 37:25 right when the milk comes out um 37:28 the other thing about it is this idea of 37:31 uh 37:32 of of artifacts you talked about these 37:34 artifacts of care 37:36 and so that's very much kind of part of 37:38 this built into this work too is like 37:40 these artifacts these collection vessels 37:43 and kind of what you were talking about 37:44 earlier fran about 37:46 uh how your first works that were 37:48 dealing in the space for 37:49 um you know creating uh you know it's 37:52 preserving your 37:53 your breast milk and uh the resin 37:55 creating 37:56 you know uh saving it and within uh 37:58 archiving it preserving it within resin 38:01 but this idea of like collection and 38:04 uh of uh and like all these different 38:07 meanings because you're collecting when 38:09 you're pumping you're collecting 38:10 the milk to then um give it back to the 38:13 baby or you're collecting the milk to 38:15 just dump it out or you're collecting 38:16 the milk to like put it in your freezer 38:18 to store up in case the apocalypse 38:20 apocalypse comes which has 38:22 has happened and and she also even uses 38:25 in her statement the 38:27 monuments to motherhood and in that when 38:29 she talks about 38:31 i cling to the now discarded objects the 38:33 relics of their smallness i save them i 38:35 honor them i cut them apart i put them 38:37 back together 38:38 i coat them i encapsulate them i line 38:41 them out 38:42 up proudly like trophies awarding myself 38:45 the permission 38:46 to long for the times i once prayed 38:48 would go by faster 38:49 monuments to motherhood so anyways i 38:51 thought those two works kind of touched 38:52 on 38:53 um some of the things you were talking 38:55 about 38:57 very much so um actually 39:00 amy amy gilmore's work and my work 39:04 the origins of it are very similar 39:07 um and the reasons the concept 39:10 are very similar as well um i i too 39:14 have my baby bottles and 39:17 my breast pump shields stored at a place 39:21 where i can go 39:22 and still visit them and 39:26 and enjoy the memories that i had 39:29 i particularly did not like 39:31 breastfeeding 39:32 um it was uh painful for me to 39:36 experience 39:37 but i i did it for 18 months for each of 39:40 my children 39:41 so there's three of them so that's five 39:43 and a half 39:44 years of breastfeeding 39:48 i always tell people you know whoa these 39:50 are working breasts whoa 39:54 like a it's a robotic arm i can't 39:56 control it 39:58 so the interesting thing about this is 39:59 that you stopped with amy gilmour's work 40:02 or 40:02 or at least segway to it from crystal 40:06 is that what are we really trying to 40:08 achieve here we are 40:10 putting these seemingly mundane objects 40:13 um laundry basket and things like that 40:16 things that are not 40:17 normally associated with 40:22 high art or valuable things or things 40:25 like that but we 40:26 we put them there in the middle of a 40:27 gallery um 40:29 very common objects that most of us are 40:32 familiar with and 40:33 that are equated with labor 40:36 intense labor and um 40:41 so what are we trying to do why are we 40:44 doing this well 40:45 that's part of reframing 40:49 the concept of art and um 40:53 trying to create a paradigm shift 40:55 basically here 40:57 of valuing these 41:01 these relics of caregiving and labor um 41:06 and that's really what the intention of 41:09 the whole context 41:10 the intention of anthropology of 41:12 motherhood and the culture of care 41:13 is is to remind ourselves that 41:17 our actions of care our objects are of 41:20 care 41:20 are valuable and we need to 41:23 put them in the forefront of our of our 41:27 minds and of our practices 41:29 whether it's we're going to work or 41:31 whether we're stay-at-home moms or 41:33 stay-at-home dads 41:34 um whether we're caring for sick or 41:36 whether if we are just you know 41:38 out in the grocery store and you see 41:40 somebody who's having a hard time 41:42 carrying things or whatever it's about 41:46 understanding that we're all responsible 41:48 for each other you know 41:50 i mean this this idea of meritocracy or 41:52 individualism 41:54 um is is such a a 41:58 uh it's such a shallow 42:02 and uh new concept because if you really 42:05 look at our history over time we've 42:07 always been 42:09 a caregiving society we would not have 42:12 achieved our status of 42:16 you know the the largest species 42:19 apart from mammals i should say apart 42:21 from insects 42:22 uh if we did not have a society 42:26 that cared so much for each other we 42:28 could not have grown as humans 42:30 we could not have evolved to where we 42:33 are now 42:34 if we did not care for each other or if 42:37 we did not 42:38 make caregiving a central part of our 42:41 lives 42:42 evolutionarily speaking so why is it now 42:45 that we are all of a sudden 42:47 you know in this area where you know 42:52 being a stay-at-home mom people are like 42:54 oh 42:55 you know you can't make art out of that 42:57 and this is 42:59 uh as you're showing this um amy 43:02 sanderbach uses one of my 43:04 one of the the artwork that i really 43:06 relate to 43:07 she here she's she's she's photographed 43:10 these 43:11 black and white photographs are just 43:13 gorgeous 43:14 photographs of broken dishes 43:18 and dishes in the sink and food allergy 43:21 jars 43:24 and this is particularly a favorite of 43:26 mine is 43:27 she's driving a minivan where she has a 43:30 list of all of the um 43:32 uh foods that her children are allergic 43:35 to 43:36 which i think is a beautiful thing when 43:39 you're 43:40 you know when you have this this this 43:43 collection of things that are just um 43:46 so mundane but they're put together and 43:48 but the value 43:50 that you put on them is is 43:55 actually it's invaluable because these 43:57 things you know 43:58 these acts that we do are essentially 44:01 life-saving things for our children 44:04 um helping them become 44:08 helping help helping them to realize uh 44:11 their potentials and things like that 44:13 were you saying something amy 44:14 oh i was gonna say that um the 44:16 life-saving sustenance aspect of it is a 44:19 huge 44:19 theme of this show and um 44:23 want to talk to you about sue powers 44:25 work over here 44:27 so we have a number of works this is um 44:31 emily armstrong's and i don't know if 44:34 you can guess what the title of this is 44:35 but 44:36 it's breast um 44:42 [Laughter] 44:44 sherlock's obsession which again we 44:48 don't have the audio on the video 44:50 uh the video works because of the 44:51 feedback but 44:53 um you know it's an amazing 44:57 video that cuts back and forth between 45:02 kind of extreme close-ups and uh 45:05 you know home footage uh fast montage 45:09 fast cut montages slow uh you know slow 45:12 motion 45:13 that kind of represents that collapsing 45:16 the rushing 45:17 and the slowness of time that happens 45:19 when you're care giving 45:21 where time becomes extremely fluid can 45:22 either seem very fast or it can seem 45:25 you know unending and the video really 45:29 conveys that and the growth of the child 45:33 um sue powers uh work back to the patch 45:36 and it's another video that will pop up 45:38 uh it here's a image 45:42 that's called formula twins and it's the 45:45 story 45:46 of how when her uh grandmother 45:49 uh gave birth to uh twins 45:53 uh she had toxemia and had this was this 45:56 would have been 45:56 in the first half of the 20th century 45:58 she had toxemia and they 46:00 lived in a mining community outside of 46:02 pittsburgh 46:04 and those were called patch towns and uh 46:07 so her grandfather was left to care for 46:10 these two 46:11 newborns at a time when industrial 46:13 formula hadn't been created yet 46:17 and his wife their mother was um 46:20 unable to feed them because she was 46:22 hospitalized 46:23 so he the the fellow workers in the 46:27 patch town 46:29 came to to his aid and uh the african 46:32 american 46:33 workers who lived in the community 46:35 passed down 46:36 to him uh who he was also an immigrant 46:39 an eastern european immigrant their 46:43 recipe for formula which was flour and 46:46 water 46:47 and uh again passed down orally it's an 46:50 intergenerational thing 46:52 it's it's again these kind of like 46:53 sub-altern spaces that aren't 46:55 mainstreamed 46:56 and uh sue's grandfather 47:00 made the formula and the twins thrived 47:02 on it and they survived 47:03 uh so it's through that community aspect 47:06 so this is a 47:07 still from it that was blown up into a 47:10 print 47:11 and then uh sue who's also an instructor 47:14 here at carlow 47:15 um as well as a musician in her own 47:18 right and an artist 47:20 created a video and a song 47:24 um that memorializes it but again tied 47:27 to these ideas of sustenance 47:29 and survival and anxiety 47:32 um and community um in the in 47:35 in terms of this kind of larger uh um 47:39 you know talking about these larger 47:41 issues of care 47:42 um and then i don't know friend do you 47:44 want me to just keep kind of walking 47:46 around and 47:47 we can kind of talk about the works so 47:48 that we make sure that we 47:51 i i'm we're also very happy to take 47:54 questions from the audience if you just 47:56 want to 47:56 throw them in the chat if you have a 47:58 question about a particular 48:00 um piece or you know a comment 48:04 um yeah i i i'm happy 48:07 looking at the show with you amy but i 48:09 did want to say something about 48:11 care as well and the the the timing 48:15 of this show the poignancy of the show 48:18 with what's going on right now 48:20 amidst the pandemic um and 48:23 the um the protests that are going on 48:26 the black lives matter 48:27 movement that's going on um 48:32 caring is also um 48:37 healing so 48:40 sometimes we when we're talking about 48:42 laborious things and 48:44 and you know just just taking care of 48:47 children sick and things like that 48:50 let's not forget that a culture of care 48:52 also 48:53 is about caring for our mental health 48:57 and our emotional health 48:59 that is a big part of it which um 49:03 which i think will be able to see um 49:06 well 49:07 the one the one piece i was thinking of 49:10 kim's 49:11 um uh amy but 49:14 is it's an intense it's an intense sort 49:17 of 49:18 intense um image but that 49:21 connection between emotional healing and 49:24 and 49:25 mental healing and how it relates now to 49:28 us in the middle of a pandemic and in 49:31 the middle 49:32 of um general unrest here in the united 49:36 states especially 49:37 before the election um 49:41 we need to be able to we need to be able 49:43 to make that bridge and connect that 49:45 thread 49:46 uh because it is it is interconnected 49:51 um absolutely and and again like you 49:54 said 49:55 uh um fran this idea of caregiving 49:58 um and care and the ethos of care and 50:01 the whole thing that you lead as you've 50:03 taught me you 50:04 lead with care um because 50:07 speaking of the protests and the 50:09 pandemic we have 50:10 as a nation and as a culture have come 50:13 to 50:14 accept a very high level of violence 50:17 in our day-to-day lives and a very high 50:19 level of suffering 50:21 and part of that is the ethos 50:25 is of competition the ethos is of of 50:28 you know zero sum and you know zero sum 50:31 approaches to 50:33 society and culture and um 50:36 and not providing and very limited 50:39 knowledge systems and ways of 50:41 understanding and making sense of things 50:43 and uh and again because 50:47 caregiving is usually associated with 50:50 the female gender it's usually 50:52 associated with people 50:54 who do not have the means to uh 50:56 otherwise 50:57 hire out their care um so there's a 51:00 class issue there's a gender issue 51:04 that's all tied into the devaluing of 51:06 care when in fact 51:07 it i think the you know your thesis 51:10 statement for this show is really 51:12 that it should be centered care should 51:14 be centered 51:15 i just wanted to point out a couple 51:17 things um this is tarapha's deities 51:20 and i really love tara's work um 51:23 and we talked about storytelling what i 51:25 love about tara's work is how 51:27 she plays with storytelling and with 51:30 fiction 51:30 and with myth and combining 51:33 sort of the composition 51:36 and uh tradition of 51:40 fine art imagery and mythological 51:41 imagery with 51:43 the sort of banal space of the kitchen 51:46 and with 51:46 in these contemporary spaces and tied 51:49 into 51:50 the notions of goddesses and 51:53 fictionality i think i really love 51:56 this particular image and then also 52:00 we just looked at grace wong's work and 52:02 grace 52:03 and another theme in the show is 52:05 intergenerationality 52:06 and so this is um a lenticular print 52:10 so it oops see if i can move it 52:14 so it changes when you change with it 52:18 and it's an overlay of her mother's hand 52:20 and her hand two photographs 52:22 um and those are the pieces sorry this 52:25 is one of the pieces that we had 52:27 we weren't able to curate in the online 52:30 version of this show for the three 52:31 rivers arts festival because 52:33 of the nature of the the work and so 52:36 we're really happy that we 52:38 were able to to exhibit it 52:42 in person here at carlow yeah it's an 52:44 amazing 52:45 amazing work um the other 52:49 you know in uh in terms of mythology um 52:52 alex costo uh i'm probably alex i please 52:55 apologize if i'm 52:56 i'm if i'm butchering your name um 53:00 but bookmark one a name oops i will 53:03 adjust this 53:04 is about storytelling and uh 53:08 and language and image and you're 53:10 actually supposed to 53:13 flips through these and i want to go and 53:15 grab alex's statement 53:17 because again it has um some excellent 53:20 like connections to tara's work 53:24 and again to this idea of storytelling 53:33 so it's part of an ongoing series of 53:35 bookmark shaped books 53:37 on seemingly aimless notions a name 53:40 which is the title of this is a brief 53:42 personal reflection on what it might 53:44 mean to make a person 53:46 with images that allude to greek 53:48 mythology 53:49 penelope the name without a girl stands 53:52 in for a latent wish to have a daughter 53:55 my practice treats books as knots in 53:57 reality 53:58 seemingly small and defined but dense 54:00 and labyrinthine 54:02 they require close attention to be 54:04 traced and grasped 54:12 they're they're very they're lovely very 54:15 sort of um soft 54:19 uh 54:22 sheets of paper with these just very 54:26 subtle um uh text 54:29 in them and it it's just such a 54:33 loving image yeah an object 54:37 in itself that exudes sort of like this 54:40 subtlety of pear and that's one of the 54:43 pieces um 54:44 which i really like as well i like all 54:46 of the pieces 54:50 i do love every single piece of that 54:52 show 54:55 and this is sarah simmons yeah do you 54:57 want to talk about the work fran or do 54:59 you want 54:59 no no you go ahead you have the cheat 55:01 sheet amy 55:03 so this is called scarecrow and it's an 55:06 amazing work i can see if i can get in 55:07 here 55:08 um it's a wooden rake with 55:11 dried flowers and text 55:15 in those flowers lace 55:18 and it's a vintage dress uh again 55:21 tying into the idea i mean labor and 55:25 laundry and clothing and 55:26 all those kind of symbolic realities but 55:28 also 55:29 the reuse of it and the care in reuse 55:32 but then seeing the age 55:34 and taking something that would 55:36 otherwise be discarded 55:37 and um and making it 55:40 prominent but the title is really 55:43 interesting too and i just want to get 55:44 into some of the detail 55:45 here because there's more text and 55:48 patterning 55:50 is it's also called scarecrow and 55:53 it has this very skeletal quality to it 55:56 ghostly if you will and so i think it 55:59 really it really speaks to 56:01 it's perfect for this eve of halloween 56:04 um and it speaks to um 56:08 again the kind of decay and or 56:12 the organicness of life and life cycles 56:16 um as manifested beautifully 56:20 and again a rake which is a very like 56:23 labor uh a tool of labor a tool of 56:25 working the land 56:27 with uh clothing and 56:30 also again the these kind of organic 56:32 materials that tie into that 56:35 and then playing around with void and 56:37 emptiness 56:38 and um and 56:42 what could be an index of the body and 56:45 with that i wanted to come over 56:47 and talk a little bit about valerie 56:48 george's work so 56:50 i know valerie i have worked with her 56:53 she's an amazing artist she's also 56:57 a professor at the university of west 56:58 florida and i took a 57:01 i guess a rambling random sampling of 57:03 work but not so random 57:05 because not only did it did the work 57:08 that we have on display here it talks it 57:11 speaks towards her cycle 57:13 her life cycle as an artist and also as 57:15 a human 57:16 and so i wanted to show first uh the her 57:19 earlier works 57:20 that again tied to these ideas of energy 57:22 generationality 57:24 the passing on uh the the thinking about 57:28 and and ruminating on relationships 57:31 to past generations into future 57:33 generations 57:35 and so this this image is from early on 57:37 in her career it's called the light 57:39 is for me um and 57:42 it's a photograph was taking of artie 57:45 missy brown 57:46 just before her death and she was a 57:49 supporter of valerie's 57:50 valerie george's choice to become an 57:52 artist and was often the muse and model 57:54 of her photographs so here you have this 57:56 image of of caregiving 57:59 except and and of intergenerationality 58:02 and 58:03 of kind of that moment of passage as 58:06 well 58:06 that's occurring that's really moving 58:08 and 58:10 then this ties into uh her 58:13 another series that's early on in her 58:14 career called recapturing grace 58:17 uh in it she restages photographs with 58:19 herself in it 58:21 that were originally photographs of her 58:22 mother um 58:24 so hold on let me see if i can there we 58:27 go sorry 58:29 so you can see the top image is 58:31 valerie's 58:32 mother so she writes inspired by roland 58:35 bart 58:36 camera lucida the series explores topics 58:39 explored in foot uh photographic theory 58:42 and addressing the notion of the pose 58:43 and the gays and specifically 58:45 valerie george is interested in 58:47 examining the physical similarities 58:48 between yourself and her mother 58:50 while also considering what it means to 58:52 be a woman photographed to pose for a 58:54 photograph 58:54 and to recreate a photograph and 58:58 one thing that's not in the in that 59:00 little blurb 59:01 is that roland bart's camera lucida 59:05 was a theorist that wrote about art 59:08 wrote about culture 59:09 um semiotician but this particular 59:13 work camera lucida was his him trying to 59:16 make sense of photography 59:18 um but doing so by ruminating on a 59:21 photograph of his dead mother 59:24 and it's a really beautifully written uh 59:26 piece 59:27 uh that normally comes from somebody who 59:29 writes very theoretically 59:31 and so again this idea of 59:35 of a kind of intergenerationality 59:38 of connecting to the past through 59:42 uh the maternal and the other thing too 59:45 to think about 59:46 as sue powers uh work uh uh also brings 59:49 in 59:49 into the four is also thinking about 59:52 fathers who are maternal so maternal 59:55 fatherhood 59:56 and the way and and that maternal then 59:58 becomes more of an ethos or a concept 60:02 and not tied necessarily to a gender 60:06 and then this kind of rounds out with 60:08 some of valerie's latest work 60:10 and this series is called welcome to my 60:14 party 60:15 um and uh it's an ongoing body of work 60:20 called directly from her experience of 60:23 the diagnosis of breast cancer 60:25 so utilizing the aesthetics of 17th 60:27 century dutch still-life painting 60:29 she wakes up in the face of a camera 60:34 directly documenting her when she was 60:37 undergoing a mastectomy 60:40 and uh documenting as she describes her 60:43 spirit and flux 60:45 and the transformation of her body and 60:47 so in particular this image 60:49 i think is just really amazing and then 60:52 its relationship 60:53 uh to the lightest for me 60:56 um and the still life is is 61:00 is particularly um you know 61:04 it's tongue-in-cheek but it's also i'm 61:06 sorry very moving 61:07 so you have these kind of kitschy um 61:10 objects these lemon 61:12 um candles because normally in a dutch 61:14 still life 61:15 they would have actual lemons that they 61:17 would paint and it would be 61:18 just like just this kind of fetishism of 61:21 the surface of fruit and 61:25 vegetables and of flowers and also they 61:28 were very adamant like in that painting 61:30 that john are painting to show uh the 61:32 the blemishes too 61:33 to look at decay and decay as a memento 61:37 mori or a symbol 61:38 or of of kind of the the relationship 61:42 and the cycle of life and so you have 61:44 these amazing kind of kitschy objects 61:46 that are then elevated and are 61:49 tongue-in-cheek 61:50 uh relating to to the breasts and again 61:53 that parallels with the tongue and 61:54 cheekness of the deflated balloons 61:57 and the welcome to my party um 62:00 kind of ethos of it all and then if you 62:02 look closely here 62:04 um and i don't know because i'm not a 62:06 nurse uh but the 62:08 pan uh that's usually given to someone 62:11 who is in a hospital bed who's about to 62:12 undergo surgery whoops 62:15 i hope that the video comes back out 62:17 okay um that's about to undergo surgery 62:19 and is the pan for which you are to 62:21 spit or do other things into and then 62:24 again with these 62:25 beautiful faux 62:29 flowers so again we have this 62:33 again cycle of caregiving the experience 62:36 of care 62:37 tied to the maternal body tied to the 62:39 female body 62:40 i think is really interesting and uh 62:42 just to conclude 62:44 the artworks in the show we have the 62:45 linus collective 62:47 which is an installation of 62:52 artwork by three amazing artists 62:55 kristin russo who also among many things 62:58 is also a doula 63:01 wrote this beautiful poem that again 63:04 talks about inner 63:05 generationality and and the lineage of 63:08 mamas and papas and the comfort that 63:10 that brings 63:11 olga brindar's work is a way to play 63:15 around with the notion 63:16 of um the master copy in in art history 63:21 which is usually the master artist 63:24 paints the painting and then the um 63:27 the apprentices uh copy it right and 63:31 uh you know as part of that education 63:33 aspect of it 63:34 so here her daughter um is paint is the 63:38 one that is 63:39 it's flipped on its end where her 63:40 daughter is the master 63:42 and she's then copying her daughter's 63:44 painting and so that's what you see here 63:46 this connection of education of the 63:49 mother following the daughter of a 63:51 reversal 63:52 of um of those ideas 63:55 and here's jessica moss's who's also 63:57 part of the linus collective 63:59 um uh contribution to the 64:02 to the uh work which is this lovely 64:06 lovely stool um facing the corner 64:09 much like um you know when someone's in 64:12 trouble 64:13 and is placed in the corner although i 64:14 don't think people do that 64:16 often nowadays um and then this 64:18 beautiful 64:19 get your balance uh statement related to 64:22 it so again 64:24 this is a really minimal but complex 64:26 work that references 64:28 um child rearing that references 64:31 um the uh 64:34 the ways and like spaces those like kind 64:37 of cubby hole 64:38 aspects of childhood navigating and 64:42 finding your lines of morality what's 64:44 right what's wrong 64:45 what gets you in the corner and what 64:46 doesn't and how that maybe those spaces 64:48 can be the things that enrich you 64:50 and get and retain you know help you 64:52 regain your balance 64:54 and lastly i just wanted to show jamie 64:56 bird's work 64:58 going forward looking back and jamie is 65:01 an amazing photographer 65:02 who is a pittsburgh photographer and 65:06 it shoots from the hip as it were um 65:10 she uh documents our city documents the 65:12 people in it 65:13 and this is just an amazing uh image 65:16 of motherhood and motherhood 65:19 specifically rooted 65:21 in in pittsburgh so that is 65:24 that's i've covered all the artworks in 65:26 the show so if we 65:28 so sarah i don't know if you're telling 65:29 me that we we don't have much time left 65:32 if there's any questions that we want to 65:33 answer fran if there's anything you 65:35 would like to 65:36 no i i i thought you did a great tour 65:40 i mean i didn't need to go to the 65:41 gallery you could have just done this 65:44 i could have installed from here at home 65:47 and you would just 65:48 look at this look okay no no no 65:51 i needed your help but i i think that 65:54 um so really what we're trying to 65:56 achieve here and i and 65:58 amy correct me if i'm wrong is to 66:01 perpetuate this 66:02 concept of the importance of care 66:05 and and elevate the um 66:09 the acts of care and art care 66:12 as you're looking at valerie george's 66:14 work and some of the old photographs i 66:16 hope 66:16 that people um at least those of you who 66:19 are watching and those who see it 66:21 will relate to it and say oh yeah i have 66:23 photos like that in my house as well 66:26 and know that yes they are worthy 66:29 of being put out there to the world that 66:31 your experiences are valuable 66:33 and they need to be shared um and 66:38 ultimately this is kind of the this is 66:41 the concept this is the paradigm shift 66:43 that we're 66:43 trying to to help create this cultural 66:47 reset that we're experiencing is that we 66:50 look at caregiving compassion 66:54 sympathy empathy as put them in the 66:57 forefront of our minds 66:58 when we're making decisions about our 67:00 lives whether it's 67:02 politics education 67:06 building things if you are in a position 67:09 of 67:10 privilege that you have the ability to 67:14 to decide um 67:18 certain um i don't know decisions in an 67:21 institution for example 67:23 try to just shift your mind a little bit 67:25 into thinking of 67:27 being compassionate um and and 67:30 think of the caregivers how you can take 67:33 care of 67:34 of the caregivers before making a 67:36 decision i think that this 67:37 that 67:41 it's it's a concept i think that it's a 67:43 very 67:44 small shift i think but it it 67:48 it is a pivotal shift i think when we 67:50 start thinking about those things 67:53 absolutely we have a comment here from 67:56 christina it says i think discipline 67:57 needs to be reevaluated as we grow 68:00 as parents true that 68:05 that is that is so deep though 68:09 my my youngest one is 15 68:13 and um i have to say 68:17 that i have really considered the 68:19 situation 68:20 that's happening in the world right now 68:23 um i have 68:24 a lot less i'm a lot more lenient with 68:26 him right now 68:27 i am um making sure that he's his mental 68:31 health 68:32 is um uh he's working on his mental 68:35 health and so he 68:37 where does discipline fit in that i 68:39 don't know amy you have younger kids so 68:42 yeah friend i don't know what i'm doing 68:45 so that's 68:46 that's part of the problem so christina 68:48 we should definitely take that up on 68:49 like undisciplining 68:51 like unlearning ways in which we 68:53 discipline because they are 68:54 uh you know maybe 68:58 uh rooted in not the ethos of care right 69:01 they're rooted in 69:02 um the ethos of punishment and 69:06 law and order and and then that gets to 69:09 the idea of like how are 69:11 we supposed how are children supposed to 69:13 uh relate 69:14 to society and to adults into each other 69:17 and that's not like a thing that's just 69:19 a priority that is 69:20 um i mean it is a prairie they they 69:22 naturally will 69:24 build their social bonds and social 69:27 relationships but how 69:30 what is governed as good or bad or ideal 69:33 is 69:34 a complete social construction and 69:35 depends on 69:37 what particular culture in a particular 69:39 site society those children 69:40 are a part of um so it's contingent and 69:44 as christina said like rethinking and 69:46 then also what you said fran like even 69:48 just like rethinking 69:50 just this moment again this moment of 69:52 suffering and loss and grief on so many 69:54 different 69:55 levels of uncertainty it certainly has 69:57 helped us 69:58 if anything rethink things that we just 70:01 did 70:02 and um and uh provide 70:06 uh opportunity for reflection to 70:08 hopefully better ourselves 70:10 and the institutions that that form our 70:13 our society 70:18 so um do we have any other comments 70:21 or questions that come in because we've 70:23 been 70:24 online for what now 90 minutes 70:28 really it's been that long yeah we don't 70:30 want to have 70:31 zoom fatigue here um if there are no 70:34 more questions 70:36 i just want to give a shout out to sarah 70:38 tang 70:39 yes sir curator of anthropology of 70:42 motherhood and we do have a web 70:45 version of the of this exhibit and you 70:48 can go to anthropology of motherhood.com 70:50 one word 70:52 and you'll also see the previous 70:53 exhibits that we've had 70:56 and uh sarah has been instrumental in 70:59 building that so 71:00 sarah thank you thank you so much thank 71:03 you sarah 71:04 and also follow anthropology of 71:06 motherhood on facebook and instagram and 71:08 follow the carlow university art gallery 71:09 on 71:10 facebook and instagram if that's your 71:12 thing 71:14 you can find us online if you have any 71:16 other questions 71:17 um and we're hoping that the show 71:21 will just grow this concept will grow 71:23 we're planning to 71:25 give it some legs make it travel and 71:27 even expand it 71:28 to other um to more artwork so 71:32 you know if any of you are artists out 71:34 there please keep that in mind 71:35 when you're making your next work or if 71:37 you have any work that you think might 71:39 be 71:39 pertinent we're happy and 71:42 happy to have a communication awesome 71:45 and thank you fran 71:46 because it wasn't for you this wouldn't 71:48 be so thank you so much for 71:50 all of your amazingness amy 71:53 we weren't going to do this but yeah i 71:56 just want to say to amy we can't see you 71:59 nobody's we're always like looking at 72:02 the 72:02 um that was and yeah 72:05 so let me just say um this incredible 72:08 human being here who um 72:11 was so willing to just take the concept 72:15 and run um it's really hard to meet 72:18 somebody in academia 72:20 who um who who takes an idea 72:24 and really compliments it and shares it 72:27 you know academia can be pretty um 72:30 how do you say caddy sometimes 72:37 yes yes but in the in the um 72:41 in the uh spirit of the culture of care 72:43 in this show 72:44 amy certainly is it's complementary so 72:47 i appreciate all the work that you've 72:49 put in and thank you for 72:51 listening to the to the ideas and taking 72:54 thank you friend 72:55 thank you so much and i also want to say 72:57 that i think my phone has like 13 73:00 left on it so i might i might disappear 73:03 um 73:04 but thank you to everybody that stuck 73:07 with us 73:08 migrated over to zoom um like i said 73:10 we're gonna get better at this 73:11 and we have amazing panels that are 73:13 coming up um 73:15 we've got a workshop a poetry workshop 73:18 with 73:18 veronica corpuz next week uh same time 73:22 all the all the programming is going to 73:24 be fri virtual 73:25 fridays at 4 30. uh we're going to have 73:27 a disability 73:28 uh an empowerment workshop with ruth 73:30 fraby 73:31 we're also i think going to have a land 73:33 acknowledgement workshop um 73:35 a few of the artists led by jessica moss 73:38 and tara faye are going are organizing 73:41 um a two-part black motherhood uh set of 73:44 panels uh 73:46 with uh muffy mendoza um we're gonna 73:49 have a panel on immigrant motherhood and 73:51 a panel 73:51 on art and academia and uh 73:55 working and all that good stuff so 73:57 there's a lot 73:58 just wanted to throw out there the land 74:00 acknowledged so 74:01 you know just keep the schedule straight 74:04 guys november 6 74:05 is a poetry workshop the friday after 74:07 november 13th melissa schagenov an 74:09 artist from 74:10 a native american artist from alaska is 74:12 coming to do 74:14 not know he's virtually doing a land 74:16 acknowledgement workshop 74:18 after that good friend of mine ruth fabi 74:20 who is the director 74:21 of the disability arts in um 74:25 in wales there's a welch name which i 74:28 cannot pronounce 74:29 like all consonants stuck together right 74:32 yep 74:33 um and and so so those are 74:36 those are the the that's the programming 74:38 for november and stay tuned for 74:41 the uh our december 74:44 this year yeah and lioness collective is 74:47 going to be doing a performance 74:49 in december as well so we'll keep you 74:50 all posted thank you for spending your 74:52 time with us this friday 74:54 appreciate it yep