This is a project about mothers. About returning to your family, about coming of age, and along the way it’s a project about missing our mothers. It’s a project about how social reproductive labor is nothing without birth, and how birth leads to death, sometimes more quickly than other times.
This series, titled Arnica, can be described as a ballad which my late stepmother, Heather, didn’t have the chance to finish. A storybook for my brother, of the mother he longs to know. A family album for us all, where our present can find abundance with the past.
Arnica explores notions of maternal labor and care, the imperfections in showing up, and a family motto, never don’t swim. Submerged in the security and uncertainty of water, much like a womb.
