Mothersuckers Project forms as an organisation

At the end of 2011 the Mothersuckers Project formally became an arts organisation with the following aims:
1. to enable artists whose practice has been or is currently substantially affected by the experience of parenthood.
2. to provide a point of contact whereby ideas and work related to the above can be discussed and promoted.
3. to contribute to long term studies of work being made about the subject in relation to art debate.
4. to act as a model of good practice for other areas across Wales and further afield.

Mothersuckers Project

Mothersuckers is a project arising out of the collaboration between Zoë Gingell and Eve Dent, drawn from their personal and artistic responses towards motherhood and pregnancy, which have developed, into ideas for a new approach to their usual practice as artists.

There is a particular focus on the reappraisal of one’s own body, as a dual conduit of connection and separation, of oneself in relation to an ‘other’ imagined yet real being, growing within and the psychological and emotional connections involved within an essentially shared physical relationship.

"Since our meeting, we have found an exciting and enlivening point of discussion of ideas around the pregnant body, the psyche/self and the breast as a symbol of both connection and separation, questions around a relationship that whilst being mutually functional involves an emotional and psychological evolution through the medium of a physical journey.”


mothersuckersproject@gmail.com

photos by Thomas Bartlett

Parental Body - Call of Interest

The Mothersuckers Project are curating a touring exhibition starting in Wales in 2014. 'Parental Body' hopes to explore how the experience of being or becoming a parent can actively shape an artists' practice; as a vibrant source of subject matter in its own right. 
In celebrating individual and sometimes challenging perspectives, ‘Parental Body’ aims to broaden general preconceptions of parenthood. 

Parental Body will place work which can often be considered marginal to one's usual practice within a serious cultural framework, offering critical recognition. In addition, this is an opportunity to be part of an international network of artists engaged with common concerns.

Interested artists are invited to submit the following to: mothersuckersproject@gmail.com 

name and contact details

current cv

artist’s statement (approx. 300 words)

maximum of 5 examples of work as jpeg/tiff, (max 5mg each)

a response to the following question (approx. 300 words): 

In what ways has the experience of becoming a parent shaped your practice?

closing deadline for submissions 15th October 2012

Mae’r Mothersuckers Project yn trefnu arddangosfa deithiol i ddechrau yng Nghymru yn 2014. Bydd ‘Parental Body’ yn ceisio archwilio sut y gall y profiad o fod neu o ddod yn rhiant lunio arfer artistiaid; fel pwnc llawn mynegiant sydd a’i rhinwedd ei hun. Drwy ddathlu persbectifau unigol a heriol, mae ‘Parental Body’ yn bwriadu ehangu’r rhagdybiaethau cyffredin ynghylch bod yn rhiant.

Bydd PARENTAL BODY yn dangos gwaith sydd yn aml ar ymylon eich arfer beunyddiol mewn fframwaith diwylliannol difrifol, gan gynnig  cydnabyddiaeth feirniadol. Bydd hyn hefyd yn gyfle i fod yn rhan o rwydwaith rhyngwladol o artistiaid sy’n ymwneud â materion cyffredin.

Dylai artistiaid sydd â diddordeb gyflwyno’r canlynol i:  
mothersuckersproject@gmail.com

Enw a manylion cyswllt

cv diweddar

datganiad yr artist (oddeutu 300 o eiriau)

dim mwy na 5 enghraifft o’ch gwaith ar ffurf jpeg/tiff, (dim mwy na 5mg yr un)

ymateb i’r cwestiwn canlynol (oddeutu 300 o eiriau):

Ym mha ffordd y mae’r profiad o fod yn rhiant wedi llunio eich arfer?

dyddiad cau ar gyfer cyflwyno ceisiadau yw 15fed o Hydref

French exchange

In August 2011, Mothersuckers Project took 'Breastcups' to the Dordogne region of France, with the assistance of the Wales Arts International Opportunities Fund and Article 19 association, where we staged the piece in two very different environments; namely a contemporary gallery: Metre Cube gallery and a café within a public square: Cafe des Halles, Bourdeilles.

It was interesting to find that French audiences were more adventurous than the British and would accept the offer to try tea with breastmilk, oui! We were made aware yet again through audiences enthusiastic and interested responses to the work, of a debate that is universally relevant, despite cultural differences, and to male as well as female artists and audiences alike. 

We also staged the installation for the camera in varoius settings: by a river, in some prehistoric caves, in a meadow; with some beautiful results. During one of these private performances, the boob blancmange was ceremonially carried into the river Dronne and thrown in, settling on the river bottom, where it may still be feeding the bewildered fishes and river life.

We achieved extensive press coverage and had meetings with the Regional Arts Council of the Dordogne, who promised their support for us co- organising a joint exhibition at a venue in the region. The enthusiastic response by the Director of the Perigordian Museum, Veronique Merlin-Anglade, has led to a collaborative curatorial project, bringing artists from the UK including ourselves to present work alongside French artists in response to maternal or paternal themes, in an exhibition scheduled for 2013.


photos: Josh Leeson

Breastcups- some additional thoughts by Zoë

A cafe scene is set, tables for audience members. At one table sits a mother and her baby. The audience are invited to sit, and offered tea, but they must wait for the milk, collected from lacy moulded breastcups by the waitress and placed on their table.

In Breastcups, the maternal body becomes displaced through its setting, displayed and extended through umbilical tubes, and feeding paraphernalia, surrounded by napkins and politeness. As with the films, this intimate, basic act of nurture is stretched into a world of ‘manners’ and tea time, the natural act confronting convention through forced etiquette.

Exhibited at Milkwood Gallery, Cardiff 23rd-29th May 2010

Breastcups

'Breastcups' - a collaborative piece of video, installation and performance was first shown in November 2009 at Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff. 
"Small cup and Large cup"

Two video pieces that play alongside each other. Close ups of a hand expressing breastmilk into a tiny tea cup and a normal sized tea cup. The work plays in a humourous and ironic way with the breast as a container of many meanings; with the biological normality of breast milk verses current cultural norms. The breast, the milk, but no baby - just milk for our tea.

"Breastcups"

An installation/performance . A cafe scene is set, tables for audience members. At one table sits a mother and her baby. The waitress brings out strange objects and vessels including lacy molded ‘breastcups’ which the mother fills by pumping her breastmilk through a tube into the vessels. In "Breastcups", the maternal breast becomes many vessels, with the medium and fluids of milk a kind of connective currency initially between Mother and Baby, then between self and other, performers and audience.