Madeline Swainhart
Can we sit in silence? Video stills.
Madeline Swainhart (1997, US). Through my work I am constructing an unconventional visualization of kinship. A conceptualized approach to my growing, intimate, and unapologetic relationship to motherhood. The work plays as evidence of my internal narrative. It is an archive in the making. A visual manifestation of my obsessive relationship to the notion — Mother. Queerness is a significant element in my understanding of how my own motherhood will look. I challenge the known representations of the mother figure and reshape the narrative of her archetypes. Through exploring a queered kinship I search for an image of what family can look like outside of the binary. Considering the question ‘Can we all mother?’
Playing on questions of identity— motherhood and sexuality are intertwined within the work; opening up a much concealed discourse on the relationship between the maternal figure and her sexual being. Approaching each work from a place of vulnerability, emphasized by the choice for self portraiture, fosters an atmosphere of intimacy within the images. Introducing an element of performance allows for an interaction of human desire. Weaving together the surreal and the known. Using imagery as an outlet to conceive my own utopian motherhood, while simultaneously participating in a less binary view of the mothers role. Overall, my work is a vulnerable and personal tribute into my preoccupation with the theme: Motherhood.
