GARDEN CENTRE PLAYTIME

 

Live performance documented on Camcorder video in a garden shed at South Downs Nurseries, Hassock, West Sussex, England; duration: 00:34:35 

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'Garden Centre Playtime' emerged from thinking about two central ideologies in Western society. Between the demands of work-life and the demands of family life; between the historically constructed images of warm, nurturing mothers on the one side—and of cold, competitive career women on the other. The piece juxtaposes the dyadic identities of the mother, mothering and of the artist performing in the public domain. 

 

Related Texts:

Hays, S.(1996) The Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood. CT: Yale University Press

Bell, S. (2004) Intensive performances of mothering: a sociological perspective. In Qualitative Research Vol. 4, No. 6, pp. 45-75