The maternal abject and the works of Mary Kelly
I will now look at the work of Mary Kelly of 1985: Post-Partum Document . In
this work, Kelly constructs an archive of her mothering experience using a linear
device. The work is presented primarily in the form of verbal language with
traces of maternal memorabilia such as nappies, clay imprints of a child’s
hand, specimens of plants the child collected, his name written by himself etc....
The work is in five sections following the processes by which the child separates
from the mother. This traverses the child’s development from stains of
shit on nappies and the child’s daily dietary charts to documents of the
child’s induction into the written language.
The visual absence of the mother in the work however, is quite striking given
that the work is about the author/artist as mother. This is best illustrated
in section three where the mother’s diary of her private thoughts and feelings
is erased or rubbed over by the oval crayon patterns of her child. It is as
if the act of rearing, nurturing and separating is in effect an abject performance
by Kelly as a mother. This is an act of expelling from herself that, which is
within herself. An intellectual and emotional birthing process takes place,
in slow motion where the child emerges from Kelly the mother as separate and
independent, but not without effacing his mother. Kelly is also abjecting the
self in section four where her interpretation of her child becoming difficult,
is overridden by the father’s last word on the subject, “on the contrary
he said, it’s because we’re on top of him too much” .
Indeed, I feel as if Kelly’s extraordinary work is a narrative, not only
of the mechanics of rearing a child but also of abject processes such as surrender
and loss of self, guilt, separation and contradictions. Freda Freiberg’s
reading of Kelly’s work suggests that motherhood is a psychological and
social construction based on two contradictory criteria:
“…on the one hand, total commitment of time, effort and emotion to
the welfare of the child; on the other hand, total relinquishment of the child
to society, the domain of the Father. Whether we hold on to the child, or relinquish
it, we are made to feel guilty of inadequate mothering, and judged as such.”
1
The total construction of the Post-Partum Document is tedious, lacking beauty
symbols and instant gratification, requiring careful reading and close examination.
Through the multi-layered media Kelly chose in her work, she succeeded in fragmenting
the visual and aesthetic process, and in expelling that which is comfortable
and familiar. She merges the abject through imageries, which disturb our social
space. Here I refer to the shitty nappies, the scribbles over heart-felt diary
writings, the reversed rubber stamps and so on.
Central to the maternal abject and the aesthetic process are the inherent conflicts
which Kelly illustrates both intentionally through the absence of the mother
and child figures and the use of text in a visual context, and unintentionally
through the effacement of the mother.
I explore three major areas in the construction of my work which Kelly chose not to. Firstly, the visual presence of the mother is more pronounced in my work than in Kelly’s. This is primarily due to the fact that apart from the Madonna and Child icon, women as mothers are very rarely seen in art. I note their absence and crave their presence and so decided to saturate my work with the mother’s presence with the abject.
Secondly, I incorporate the naked body of the mother in all images in order
to highlight the vulnerability and strength of her body and to focus on the
physical nature of mother’s work. This was a conscious, deliberate and
laboured decision given the widespread presence of images of the female nude
in art and the subsequent objectification of the woman’s body. Danielle
Knafo points out how the shift, to a new female aesthetic has taken place in
the last decade precisely because female artists have chosen to use the female
body to signify their own experience.
In essence, I use the nude as an encoded message to extract the voyeur in the
viewer but only to reflect and subvert his or her voyeurism. In order to do
this, I merge with the body threatening structures such as spikes, metallic
constructions, and rocky surfaces. At times, I strip the skin and attempt to
expose what lies beneath, such as veins and organs. In doing so, I aim to construct
a performance of pain.
Paradoxically, these painful inflictions serve a different purpose. The hard
labour a woman faces right from the beginning of her journey into motherhood,
at the onset of the birthing process, through to the time the child is walking,
talking and is toilet trained, is often hugely underestimated. Except for the
birthing process, the toll on her body is very rarely acknowledged. Through
the use of these threatening objects, I attempt to give to these ephemeral intruders
a material presence which then act on the naked and vulnerable body.
This is also the reason behind the use of thousands of pearl-headed metallic
pins protruding through the outer layer of the bassinet. It is a vessel for
the most fragile and precious being, the newborn infant. It is also the site
of much anxiety, torment and sleep deprivation for the mother. The walls of
the bassinet then become a metaphor for the mother’s skin, which has been
perforated by the pins. The pearls on the inside of the bassinet signify the
preciousness of the woman’s experience while the outer layer’s pin
tips signify the aggression and pain she feels through that experience. I invoke
the abject in the viewer through the schism and contradiction of the pierced
object. The jewelled inner layer of the bassinet contrasts with the harsh and
aggressive outer layer.
Finally, I use aesthetic processes such as a glossy and delicate surface of
rich colours in a darkened background. I do this in order to draw the viewer
inside the work rather than adopt Kelly’s approach of letting the viewer
physically walk along with the various components of the work. This way, the
images are denser and they offer the viewer a visual complexity as opposed to
a linear narrative. I further intensify the viewer’s experience by placing
the pin-pricked bassinet in close proximity to the delicate surfaces of the
images.
©2001 Mireille Astore
1.Freiberg, Freda. The Post-Partum Document; Maternal Archeology. In LIP, a Feminist Arts Journal. 1982/3 Issue number 7.