The C-Word: Motherhood, Activism, Art, and Childcare

Abstract

The ideals of second wave feminism questioned the family and attempted to reconstruct an understanding of motherhood as a social category. These questions have been overshadowed by a neoliberal discourse of childcare that is constructed around participation in the workplace for middle class women. The result is a clash of ideals and politics specific to the question of childcare: its labour, its distribution, and its reward. In this paper, we document our research-based artistic practice as it has evolved from activist campaigns for childcare in art schools to gallery-commissioned collaborations with publicly funded nurseries. We position our work against a context of other creative works (ranging from documentaries, films, art collectives, and animations) that explore experiences of motherhood in relation to the issue of childcare. These examples present counter-narratives, collective solutions, or art practice that attempt to challenge the dominant, neoliberal model of the mother and childcare. Some of these examples succeed in part; others pose questions; and most fail, though failure in this context provides gateways to expanded conversations and long-term future possibilities. We examine the intersection of art and activism, and explore how childcare is often considered a dirty word in art. With its inherent subjectivities of parent and child, the ‘c-word’ is often contained within the education department if engaged with as an issue at all in arts institutions. Childcare often lacks visibility if required by a practioner in order to carry on their work. Yet for us, childcare forms the subject for an artistic practice.