Children
have always been an incredibly popular subject for artists of all types. When
an artist is a parent, especially a mother, it becomes almost impossible to
avoid bringing the child into the art in some way at one time or another,
simply because the child is such a huge part of the parent’s life. Even many
artists who have never had children of their own are often drawn to this
subject. People are just naturally attracted to the innocence of children as
well as to the incomparable bond between a mother and child. This is why there
are countless paintings of children alone and children with their mothers that
are so idealized as if to exaggerate this innocence into perfection. Everyone
has become accustomed to seeing these precious paintings of children playing
happily and peacefully alongside their mothers, without a care in the world.
However, what every mother could tell you is that this idealized version of childhood
and motherhood is often far from reality. Being a parent is not easy and it’s
definitely not always pretty. The sleepless nights, the messes, the drama, the
pain and the chaos are often kept hidden. Many people seem to believe that
these are weaknesses that make them look as though they are not good enough
parents or that they do not love their children, when in reality they are what
every parent goes through while raising a child. The reality of motherhood is
very often far from beautiful and more recently there are artists who are
interested in showing this reality in their work. One of these artists is Mary
Kelly, who is well known for her work Post-Partum
Document, among many other project-based works.
Mary
Kelly is a feminist artist and a mother. She is most well known for her
large-scale installations and explorations such as Post-Partum Document and Interim.
Post-Partum Document (PPD), which was
created in the 1970s, is Mary Kelly’s personal exploration of the mother-child
relationship. It follows her relationship with her son from his birth up until
age five. In this work, the traces left behind by her son combined with her
interpretations of these traces literally become the works of art. PPD is
broken up into six parts; each of which describes a different stage in the
growth of her child as well as the struggles that she went through as a mother
during that stage. One of the common themes that unites each of these sections
is that of loss; either the feeling of loss of control over circumstances or
the feeling of the loss and separation of the mother-child bond as the child
grows. Other uniting themes are that of female fetishism of the child and her
use of Freudian analysis of each stage and struggle. It may seem as though Mary
Kelly is contradicting her feminist views by creating a work that identifies
herself by the traditional role of the mother, however the way that she creates
this work and analyzes it is so completely unconventional for the woman and
mother during the time that it was created that it can clearly be called
feminist art. When PPD was transformed from an installation into print, a
forward was added by Lucy R. Lippard which states that feminists of the time
“recognized Kelly’s courageous stand against cultural repression of the
mother/child experience (PPD, pg.
xi).”
The first
section of PPD is very possibly the most controversial. Section I, called
Documentation I, records the changes in Kelly’s son’s feeding and changing
schedule for three months. Kelly shows these changes by saving and displaying
the child’s stained “nappy” liners during this time period. Each of the liners
is dated and on it is written exactly what, when and how much her son ate that
day. She then adds up the total consumed each day which, along with the changes
in the stained liner, is meant to represent the growth of her son. This display
is liners is anything but pretty, and is so drastically different from the
idealized paintings of mother and child, and yet this is the reality that
parents of infants face every day. At the end of this section Kelly discusses
the separation struggles that a mother goes through when what was once part of
her, the child, is now a separate being. It is the unique struggle that only mothers
face when coming to acceptance with the fact that this child is no longer part
of her, which then leads to a greater sense of loss and absence when the mother
begin the weaning process. Kelly discusses this sense of loss as a sort of
castration complex, with the child symbolizing the phallus. It is also in this
time period that the mother becomes obsessed with making sure that the child is
healthy, which then leads to the constant nagging question of “What have I done
wrong? (PPD, pg. 41).”
Documentation
II records parts of the next stage of her son’s life, which is when he begins
speaking. It records the transition from single words, or utterances, into full
comprehendible sentences. PPD traces this transition for a period of five months,
along with Kelly’s analysis and interpretation of what was said. In each frame
Kelly includes the date, her son’s age, the utterance exactly as her son said
it, the surrounding conversation, the function of the utterance, the meaning
and the length. At the end of this section Kelly explains how the mother
understands what the child is saying even though it is not yet actual language.
She also explains how the development of speech further weans the child from
the mother and ends the mirror phrase, which is when the child identifies
himself through his mother.
The
remaining four sections, Documentations III through VI, all have to do with the
child’s entrance into the social world, apart from his mother. These sections become
very personal as they record the mother’s fear and anxieties about her child
starting school. Documentation III has a series of the mother’s notes covered
with the child’s own markings or “scribblings.” These were all done when
Kelly’s son was two years old, and again each piece is labeled with his exact
age. These scribblings are what the child produces in school each day to show
the mother, which are also meant to represent Kelly’s son’s entrance into the
patriarchal society and further separated from his mother. It is in this
section that the son is actually separated from his mother for the first time,
whereas before he was still with his mother but no longer physically part of
her.
Documentation
IV shows Kelly’s struggles with accepting the fact that her son is growing up
through a series of diary notes combined with clay molds of her son’s hand.
This series took place between age 2.5 and 3, and each piece is labeled with
the date and child’s age. In her notes Kelly is clearly struggling with the
fact that her son is no longer a baby. Kelly also returns to work during this
section and is further struggling with being separated from her growing son.
Documentation V includes a variety of specimens collected by Kelly’s son. These
are specimens that would only be cherished by a parent, since to anyone else
they would be considered worthless. They include items such as leaves, flowers,
shells and insects and they are then placed next to the conversations between
mother and child at that time as well as images of a full term pregnancy. Most
of the conversations involve the child asking questions about the differences
between his body and his mother’s body. Some of the questions include why boys
cannot have babies, which are then followed by Kelly trying to explain the
differences. It is in this section that the child is beginning to realize the
differences between men and women, which even further separates him from the
feminine world and his mother. Finally in Documentation VI Kelly’s son is
beginning to read and write. This section records this development over the
course of 18 months. Each piece is done on slate. At the top of each piece is
her son’s writing (or pre-writing), followed by an explanation of his writing
and then a diary entry by the mother. The diary entries describe Kelly’s
struggles to find a new school suitable for her son, as well as problems with
his behavior. This final section captures her fears about what she wants her
son to be versus what he is and also her fear about what she will do once he
leaves her.
Throughout
PPD Kelly reveals herself as a loving, caring mother. Even as a feminist she
does not deny the unique bond between mother and child, but instead chooses to
analyze this bond as well as her role as a mother. What I am most fascinated with
is the way that Kelly captured the realities of motherhood. She avoided the
cute and the precious and instead was not afraid to show the dirty and the
pain. Every mother is willing to talk about how wonderful motherhood is and yet
most are reluctant to talk about the difficulties. This was even more the case
during the time that Kelly was raising her son and creating PPD. Talking about
the parts of motherhood that are typically not talked or about or shown is what
Kelly does and this is also what I am interested in doing through my work. I
find the struggles and the chaos much more interesting than trying to fake
perfection.
Sources:
·
Kelly, Mary. Post-Partum
Document. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul plc, 1983. Print.
No comments:
Post a Comment