June newsletter featuring Let Down Reflex: Part II is now out.
Also included in the June newsletter: information on m/other voices Field Trip #11, Mother House, Artist-Parent Index, Cultural Re-Producers reading group and the Creative Collaborative Mothers residency in India.
See here to read Let Down Reflex - Part II
Home Affairs, And Everything Else, 2016, Image courtesy of the EFA Project Space
FIELD TRIP # 11,
MARGRET WIBMER, AUSTRIA
'Victor', (2010), Margret Wibmer, lambdaprint on dibond, 100 x 100 cm, Ed.5.
“The above photograph was produced in Japan for my solo show at Art Gummi Gallery in Kanazawa. It was made in the private home of Mr. Yamazaki, a collector of antique audio and video apparature. The dog in the picture is nipper who served as a model in the famous painting titled 'his master’s voice’ as he is listening to a cylinder phonograph. Over a number of years I have produced a series of photographs that are concerned with how we relate to objects and the role of women in advertisement and modern consumer culture. My daughter Malaya appeared in many of these images. I will reveal more during the studio talk.“
Margret Wibmer is an international artist and educator who received her art education at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. After her studies she was based in New York City for many years. Since 1990 she has been based in Amsterdam. Margret Wibmer works systematically on the border between art and fashion, employing different media such as performance, photography, video and sculpture. The past couple of years she has been focusing on developing participatory performances that involve museum visitors as actors. Her works have been shown in galleries and museums in Europe, the US and Asia, including KAI 10 – Arthena Foundation in Düssedorf; RMIT Design Hub in Melbourne; Oude Kerk in Amsterdam, Ishikawa Nishida Kitaro Museum of Philosophy in Japan and Palais de Tokyo in Paris. Currently she is investigating alternative ways of artistic production and is part of the MA program ‘Fashion Matters’ at Sandberg Institute.
Location:
Studio Margret Wibmer,
KNSM laan 153, 1019 LC Amsterdam.
Getting there:
Bus 65 or 48 / Tram 10 from Amsterdam Central Station. Stop at Azartplein. https://www.google.com/maps/place/KNSM
PLEASE RESERVE: info@mothervoices.org
See here for more information on the Field Trips and their related inquiry.
MOTHER'S DAY, MAY 8th.
LAUNCHING A THREE-MONTH-LONG SERIES: 'THE LET DOWN REFLEX' by Amber Berson and Juliana Driever.
Home Affairs, And Everything Else, 2015 Image: copyright and courtesy of Home Affairs
Starting May 8th, Mother's Day, Amber Berson and Juliana Driever, co-curators of The Let Down Reflex, are launching a monthly column on parenting in the arts, with contributions by artists: Dillon de Give, Home Affairs (Arzu Ozkal, Claudia Costa Pederson, and Nanette Yannuzzi), Leisure (Meredith Carruthers and Susannah Wesley), Lise Haller Baggesen, LoVid, and Shane Aslan Selzer, with an additional text from EFA Project space administrators Michelle Levy and Meghana Karnik.
The column takes shape in a series of interviews on revisionist approaches to accommodations and policies on the participation of families and parents in the arts and culture, and will be published over the course of three months. The questions and answers that form this special series for m/other voices are also an attempt to speak with you - the reader and we would love to hear your feedback. The full set of questions and contributions can be read here.
Order of publications:
May: Amber Berson & Juliana Driever / Lise Haller Baggesen / Dillon de Give
June: Home Affairs / Leisure / LoVid
July: Shane Aslan Selzer / Michelle Levy & Meghana Karnik, EFA Project Space
You can read here The Let Down Reflex - Part I
Helen Sargeant, UK.
In the April column we are pleased to feature Helen Sargeant, an interdisciplinary artist and mother of two sons aged 7 and 14. Sargeant works from home collaborating on projects with her family and from her studio in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire. In her artistic work Sargeant is concerned with disrupting and challenging idealized representations of the maternal and the idea of the 'good mother', her photographs recording the ever shifting, transitory moments that she shares with her family. This year Sargeant completed M(other) Stories, a year long journal (2015-2016), comprising of autobiographical writing juxtaposed with photographs taken at home and during the school runs by using her smart phone camera. Over the course of a year, she published 332 posts documenting the work and challenges required of a woman balancing her roles and responsibilities as mother and artist. M(other) Stories was presented at The Motherhood & Creative Practices Conference, London South Bank University, 2015. Sargeant's work was exhibited at the Project AfterBirth (White Moose Gallery, UK) and she was one of the collaborators on The Egg The Womb The Head & The Moon -project and accompanying exhibition. Most recently her work was shown at the Artist as Mother as Artist exhibition (Lace Market Gallery, Nottingham, 2016.) Her column for m/other voices forms a part of a new and ongoing investigation going back in time to when she became a mother and was dealing with post-natal depression.
You can read The Miserable Mother, Part I: A Silent Earthquake here.
Friday, April 29, 2016 / 11:00am 2:00pm
Arnheum Museum
Utrechtscheweg 87
6812 AA Arnhem,
Nederland
An Excursion to visit the exhibition Queensize, a curated selection of works by female artists from the Thomas Olbricht Collection. Queensize has previously been shown at me Collectors Room Berlin and is curated by Nicola Graef (documentary film producer and director) and Wolfgang Schoppmann (chief curator of the Olbricht Collection). Visit to the exhibition will be followed by lunch and a discussion over the exhibition and its framing of female experience/s, amongst other topics that come forth from the visit. To register for the excursion and for more detailed information please send an email to info@mothervoices.org by Monday, the 25th of April.
Arnhem Museum & m/other voices
m/other voices has an internship vacancy!
Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven
In-House Production Assistant & an all around wizard!
Are you a student looking for work experience in the cultural field?
Are you interested in contemporary cultural issues, art, theory, research, philosophy, dialogue and community involvement projects? Do you want to gain experience in organising events, exhibitions, seminars and building networks across borders and disciplines? Come and work with us!
Position: 1 day a week, starting from April, 2016.
Location: Rotterdam, with a possibility to also work from home.
Tasks:
-Maintaining website and social media
-Internal and external communication
-Assisting on the production and communication of international events, exhibitions and seminars.
-Working closely alongside and assisting the director in the daily running of the foundations activities.
Required skills:
- Excellent writing skills
- Fluent English and Dutch
- Good computer skills
- Excellent knowledge of social media
- Strong event production and organisational skills
- Organized and willing to take initiatives
- Sharp editorial eye and design skills are an advantage
What we offer:
- Opportunity to work in an engaged, dynamic, small team with an international network of artists, curators, writers, scholars, and other professionals.
- Possibility to participate in the foundations many activities and contribute to content.
- Benefit from having direct contact with a team of experienced professionals within the field of cultural production both in The Netherlands and abroad.
Apply by sending an email with a CV and a letter of motivation to:
mothervoicesfoundation@gmail.com
Sharon Renee Stewart (photo David Berg)
In our March column we are pleased to feature Sharon Renee Stewart (USA/NL), who studied piano at the Utrecht School of the Arts, Faculty of Music, and later completed a Masters in Music Pedagogy at the Royal Conservatoire, The Hague. She has a private piano practice in Arnhem, has collaborated as sound artist with various dancers, and serves as Associate Editor of the Journal of Sonic Studies. Works with dancers have been performed at festivals and other venues in Arnhem, Amsterdam, Nijmegen and The Hague in the Netherlands. She publishes poetry in a collaboration with Amanda Judd on shandastudd.com. Sharon became certified in Deep Listening, with Pauline Oliveros, IONE and Heloise Gold in 2011 and is currently a teacher, with Jennifer Wilsey and Ximena Alarcón, for the online international Deep Listening Certificate Program.
You can read Listening to the Mother(being) here.
In our monthly column we are pleased to feature Oda Projesi, an artist collective from Istanbul, founded in 2000 by Özge Açıkkol, Güneş Savaş and Seçil Yersel. Through the use of various mediums such as radio, books, postcards and newspapers, Oda Projesi has been investigating relations between space, everyday life and survival tactics ever since. In their collaborative practice they are also interested in relations between artistic production and precariousness. For the m/other voices column, Oda Projesi’s Özge Açıkkol and Güneş Savaş posed questions to each other, which they then have attempted to answer.
You can read 'If I ask you a question and then you ask a question from me' here.
"What the map cuts up, the story cuts across."
- Michel de Certeau
In the January column we are pleased to feature Dr. Elena Marcevska, a London based interdisciplinary artist and researcher. Following her doctoral study on screen and feminist performance practice, she continues to focus on the relationships between performance, maternal body and digital writing. She was a key organizer of the international conference 'Motherhood and Creative Practice' (London South Bank University, June 2015) and writes about the intersection between maternal, creativity and activism.
You can read Borders with/in the Mother here.
“Unlike many other objects or identities, from the very beginning the notion of mother is fraught. She is not a simple creature. She might not even be a woman. Therefore, conceivably a mother might be a he...”
In the December column we are pleased to feature Martha Joy Rose, (USA), a New York-based performance artist, scholar, and the mother of four young adults ages 21-26. Having been named as “God Mother of Mom Rock” by the CNN, Joy has been making music since the early 1980’s in New York City. With the birth of her first child she created the Housewives On Prozac band, which has enjoyed international success and spawned a mother-made music movement. In 2002, seeking to identify the unique expressions of women who are mothers and to amplify their voices, Joy founded the Mamapalooza Festival, currently being administrated each May through the New York Parks Department. In 2009, she directed the film The Motherhood Movement: You Say You Want a Revolution, which promotes, showcases, and makes visible maternal discussion, disseminating information on the subject of Feminist/activist Mothers and the missions of International Maternal agencies. Working together with a team of academics and activists, Joy opened the first-ever Museum of Motherhood (M.O.M.) on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in 2011. Currently she is teaching “Families and Social Change” at Manhattan College. Joy’s Master’s Degree in Mother Studies is a herstoric first, and she has written for Sage Press, Demeter Press, and assorted literary journals.
You can read: A M/other Movement for the Masses here.
In the November column we are pleased to feature Irene Pérez (Spain), a visual artist based in Terrassa (Barcelona). Her work explores identity, language and the physical space. You can read Education As a Creative and Transformative Process here.
The m/other voices annual web hosting fee is coming up in December. As a non profit organisation running with the steam of a small dedicated team of volunteers we largely depend on donations for the most basic running costs of the foundations activities. The foundation would be incredibly grateful for any contribution made towards its web hosting costs for the coming year 2016.You can donate any amount by following this link. You can also choose to indicate if you wish to donate towards a specific program -or focus area - of the m/other voices foundation. Kind thank’s for your consideration.
-the m/other voices team
Happy to introduce the latest addition to the Legacy of Love Doulas: Naomie Karemi Kaingu.
The Legacy of Love Doulas is a Community Involvement program of the m/other voices foundation offering free doula services to refugees, lone mothers and low income families within The Netherlands. You can read more about this project here.
Also, don’t forget to check out the database of our Legacy of Love Doulas where you’ll find all the Doulas operating in The Netherlands within this project. Each Doula is listed with contact information and the province wherein she’s active.
Are you interested in becoming a Legacy of Love Doula yourself? Write to us at mothervoicesfoundation@gmail.com
In the October column we are pleased to feature the UK based Mila Oshin, an artist, poet, singer, artistic director, curator/founder of Project AfterBirth and practicing mother. In her article Passage, she talks about her transition into motherhood and how this became integral in producing the international exhibition Project AfterBirth together with her life- and artistic partner Kris Jager from Drunk With Joy and Joy Experiment.
You can read Passage here.
Mila Oshin, Joy Experiment, 2009, photo credit: Kevon Clifford
ART, RESEARCH, THEORY
The m/other voices September column is now out!
We are pleased to announce our September column featuring Courtney Kessel (USA), an exhibiting artist, practising mother, art educator and gallery director at the Ohio University. You can read The Eternal Maternal here.
In Balance With, 2012
The Mothernists conference recording are now available and can be viewed here.
Read MoreExtremely happy and excited to introduce you to Sindy Tejeda, m/other voices new office assistant, who will be working by my side on the everyday organisation
Read More