Distanced Domestic @ MKII, Hackney
July 27th - 31st August 2021
Selected Artists:
Amy Gillies
Amy J Wilson
Amy Jackson
Angel de Leon
Barbara Bryn Klare
Blandine Martin
Catherine Jacobs
Cherish Marshall
Claire Parker
Danni Hull
Delpha Hudson
Edwin Miles
Frances Willoughby
Fred Fabre
Galina Hristova
Grant Lambie
Hendrik Wittkopf
Inês Miguel Oliveira
James Southall Ford
Jane Pickersgill
Jenny Klein
Julia Silvester
Karla Zorrilla
Kate Steenhauer
Kristen Donoghue-Stanford
Latifah A. Stranack
Lauren Bickerdike
Lewis Andrews
Li An Lee
Liz Griffiths
Lucy Bevin
Marnie McCarthy &
Maria Fielding
Maryam Hina Hasnain
ManosBuckius Cooperative
Nikki Allford
Peter Mammes
Rob Verrill
Salvatore Esposito
Sarah Strachan
Sophie Cero
Stanley Black
Steve Pettengell
Tanya Glavatskix
Tracy Davidson
Virginia Tozzi
William Hughes
Xinan Yang
Yi Ling Lai
Yili Liu
In these hard times of isolation, economic crisis and social distancing our home has become a symbol of safety and comfort for so many. Distanced Domestic aims to explore our shared experiences in domesticity during social isolation. We ask that artists respond to existing ideas of domestic labour and feminist economics, the impact of Covid-19 on young families, children or a shift in our perspectives on our roles in a domestic space.
The reality of staying home for many women, families and children are not as comfortable as we would hope. Our new routine further highlights the inequalities in domestic labor and women’s issues that take place behind closed doors. During the first 11 weeks of lockdown from 24th March 2020, domestic abuse calls rose 11.4% in comparison to 2019. Over 45,000 calls were made during that period. (The Guardian)
Male victims of abuse also called for help in greater numbers, the Men's Advice Line seeing calls rise 35% in the first week of lockdown. (The BBC) Homes have never been a place of rest but of unpaid labour: cooking, cleaning, child rearing, personal fitness training sessions, mental health check-in’s, classrooms and play spaces.
During the first weeks of lockdown (28 March to 26 April 2020), in households with children aged under 18 years, women were carrying out on average two-thirds more of the childcare duties per day than men. This gender difference in total provision of childcare was mostly driven by the extra time women spent in carrying out non-developmental child care such as washing, feeding and dressing children and supervision of children. (Office for National Statistics)
Parents were more than twice as likely to report reduced income, less than half were able to cover a large necessary expense, and they were more likely to have been furloughed than adults without children in the house, with over 20% finding childcare impacting their work. Of all adults with children in the household, 62.7% reported that the coronavirus had impacted their work. Of all adults with children in the household, 21.2% reported that their work had been affected because of having to work around childcare. (Office for National Statistics)
Our relationships with our domestic spaces have been challenged, asking us to re-evaluate our responsibilities in our homes and adjust together to a new normal. For many of us we are further being confronted with the history of unpaid labour and realities of living within it while dealing with financial cuts and growing anxieties. We have seen an outpouring of support and acknowledgement for the new roles as parent/teacher/dance partner/quiz host/best friend we’ve taken on at home during these uncertain times. Many of us now are returning to work or looking for new employment after mass redundancies which marks the next great shift in our societal wild west of 2020. What domestic rituals will we preserve in the next phase to our lives, will we all still be making sourdough in six months time?
Amy Gillies
Blandine Martin
Delpha Hudson
Grant Lambie
Jenny Klein
Latifah A. Stranack
Lucy Bevin
Peter Mammes
Stanley Black
William Hughes
Amy J Wilson
Catherine Jacobs
Edwin Miles
Hendrik Wittkopf
Julia Silvester
Lauren Bickerdike
Marnie McCarthy & Maria Fielding
Rob Verrill
Steve Pettengell
Xinan Yang
Amy Jackson
Cherish Marshall
Frances Willoughby
Inês Miguel Oliveira
Karla Zorrilla
Lewis Andrews
Maryam Hina Hasnain
Salvatore Esposito
Tanya Glavatskix
Yi Ling Lai
Angel de Leon
Claire Parker
Fred Fabre
James Southall Ford
Kate Steenhauer
Li An Lee
ManosBuckius Cooperative
Sarah Strachan
Tracy Davidson
Barbara Bryn Klare
Danni Hull
Galina Hristova
Jane Pickersgill
Kristen Donoghue-Stanford
Liz Griffiths
Nikki Allford
Sophie Cero
Virginia Tozzi
Yili Liu
Distanced Domestic: Digital Spotlights
Maryam Hina Hasnain
Title: Our Airspace
Medium: found kilim rug, turmeric paste as paint, braided flag buntings
Size: Approx 2 x 2.5 ft
Year: 2019
This work was created last year, when tension between Pakistan & India escalated due to yet
another territorial conflict.
The contentious lines drawn by the empire over 70 years ago still cast a dark shadow over South Asian geopolitics and identity. All 4 of my grandparents were born in raised in Mumbai (then Bombay) a city with it’s coast line opening up into the Arabian sea - much like the city I was born and raised in; Karachi.
I often use textile as my material of choice
to reference a sense of domesticity and belonging and above all a cultural signifier. The idea of belonging and displacement became even more pertinent in a new context over this past year with new and ever changing travel regulations and border closures. I often use naturally derived pigments such as turmeric and saffron and the sense of nostalgia they stir for me. Stained fingers and plates and family meals passed down through generations as the result of migration and memory.
Grant Lambie
Title: Cyborg the kangaroo, detail from Made From East Dulwich
Media: Very mixed media.
Size: 21cm x 32cm x 38cm
Year: 2020
Young people are being welcomed more and more to galleries and museums. Sometimes with shows
dedicated to this period of life, and the needs of the family as a whole. These visits would bring back to the household ideas of adventure and excitement.
Over lockdown this was paused, could I
somehow temporarily fill this void? Having a driveway in front of the house, could this be transformed into a gallery for my local area? Raw materials for the works are collected from the streets of East Dulwich, left out for others to take. These are brought home and slowly made into artworks. Hence the title Made From East Dulwich. Every few days, a new piece of work is added.
This causes great excitement with some of the viewers, especially the younger ones, who run over and say “which one is new”, then look all over to find it. There are many remarks about the works, lots of smiles and lots of photos too. Some parents and their children staying for quite some time looking at each piece in great detail between themselves. Moving from a socially map-based practice, to community based practice with recycled objects, has been a great change for my work, with a lot more humour and spontaneity. Here is one of the pieces in Made From East Dulwich, called Cyborg the Kangaroo.
Latifah A. Stranack
Title: Having you close was keeping me sane.
Media: Mixed media painting
Size: 255 w x 215 h x 5 d cm
Year: 2020
Within my brush marks, relatives faces, rubbed marks and symbolic boats are often highlighted, repeated and reworked. In pursuit of a fleeting moment, I recontextualise and reframe the presence
and absence of family members and belongings, my hazy memories kept close and eternally captured on canvas.
Partially revealed, I attempt to collapse my present reality and bring the past to life,forever layered in washes of paint, helping me work through subconscious emotions and fears. My complex cultural identity is mulled upon frequently, through depictions of the sea- a sight of healing and trauma, Kanga cloth patterns and a full moon of hope. I search for a lost time, imagining my ancestors sailing alongside me on mysterious dhows, clay and coffee pots metaphors for family, and
the colour blue symbolic to many ancient cultures, becomes my timeless symbol for life, rebirth, heaven and earth. Born to parents from East and West, I have always been fascinated by cultural
hybridity.
Claire Parker
Title: Drawing the bathroom sink
Media: ink and charcoal on paper
Size: 60cm x 60cm
Year: 2020
Over lockdown, my life seemed to revolve around objects, the acts I repeated every day within the same four walls. It started with tea bags, which began to pile up like bodies once they had been taken out of the mug. I took prints of every single one I used, feeling a need to make a record of them, in order not to forget them. Then, I began to make drawings of the sink in the tiny downstairs bathroom - the same sink I would wash my hands in for twenty seconds when I came in from the outside. I did it every single day, whether I felt anxious or lonely, frustrated or even strangely peaceful. It became my way of coping with what felt like an emotionally overwhelming situation. As the weeks went on, the sink in that room became not only my companion in isolation, but a mirror to my mood.