Invisible Spaces of Parenthood (2012)
By Andrea Francke
A photograph of a workshop space and informal library within an art gallery space. A quotation written in marker pen on a board reads ‘Mothers don’t write, they are written’ by Susan Rubin Suleiman.
The Invisible Spaces of Parenthood focused on the invisibility of childcare and parenthood structures from non-parents, and tries to raise the economical/social and political issues involved. Conducted in two stages, the second part used the 60's and 70's DIY manual model that empowered readers towards self-suffiency and utopic thinking. We looked at "The Whole Earth Catalogue", Sunset books and others and contacted designers, artists, parents, etc. to invite them to develop and share their DIY projects.
During the show we made the research available and we also transformed the ground floor of the gallery into a workshop space were people could come to browse the library of instructions and build the projects. We ran a series of workshops, discussions and all the material that was documented is in the manual.
Later, at The Showroom, we researched the childcare provision in the Church Street area and used the information to generate a DIY manual of projects that could be built in the community. We hosted a series of events and discussions and produced a book that collected the knowledge produced so far.
More information:
Website: http://www.andreafrancke.me.uk
