Mother's Milk

My video work Mother’s Milk (2016) takes place in various spaces where I had to express milk following my return to PhD study after childbirth and 4 month’s maternity leave. Makeshift private spaces, they primarily consist of the toilets at Chelsea College of Arts, but also my studio, a gallery project space, and even moving, stinking train toilets.

The soundtrack hints at the potential judgment that might come from both male and female onlookers. It is a Woman’s Hour interview with Margaret Thatcher talking about childcare. She encourages women to go back to work after having children, but only if they can afford a nanny as the government should not subsidise childcare. One of the virtues of going back to work, she says, would be to have something else to bring to evening supper to talk about with their husbands.

The public gaze is also invoked as I have chosen to hide in these spaces rather than confront the gaze of others in more comfortable but exposing arenas.

• https://lungleygallery.com/wp-content/up...
• http://www7.bbk.ac.uk/conceivinghistorie...
• https://thefeministlectureprogram.vhx.tv...