the black swan and postnatal depression - rmit...

I

The Black Swan and Postnatal Depression: preventive talismans and transformative garments for ‘bad’ mothers

An Appropriate Durable Record

submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters by Research

Danielle Jacie Hobbs, BA Hons.

School of Art

College of Design and Social Context

RMIT University, Melbourne

March 2013

II

DECLARATION

I certify that except where due acknowledgement has been made, the work is that of the candidate alone.

The work has not been submitted previously, in whole or in part, to qualify for any other academic award.

The content to the thesis is the result of work which has been carried out since the official commencement date of the

approved research program.

Any editorial work, paid or unpaid, carried out by a third party is acknowledged.

Ethics procedures and guidelines have been followed.

Danielle Jacie Hobbs

March, 2013

III

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank the following people for their assistance throughout my Masters:

Special thanks to my supervisor Jazmina Cininas for her patient guidance, enthusiastic encouragement and invaluable

critiques, and to Peter Cripps for his constructive recommendations, sensitivity and support.

Dr. Keely Macarow, Jenni Morris, Emma Barrow, Liam Revell and especially Karen Hewitt for guiding me through the

administrative hurdles of undertaking a Masters. Alan Roberts for technical support. Staff at the RMIT School of Art Gallery for

advice and access to the space for preliminary presentation endeavours and my exhibition assessment.

Denise James for cups of tea, brainstorming, feather hunting and unwavering support of my pursuit.

Merryl Whyte for coffee, cake and conversation about communication, PND and getting through a Masters.

Rachel Whittaker for in-kind sponsorship of child-minding hours and steadfast support.

Our Research Strategies study group who kept me in the loop; Tassia, Robyn, Peter, John, Lesley and Yi Fang.

Kathryn Munn for her sewing expertise on Foxing (daywear for sly and cunning).

Jonathan and Jane, Lisa and Stu, Chrissie and Paul and Stu and Nikki for many a hot meal and comfy bed.

And especially my family; Jason Modica for his love, patience and panoptic support, Luka Modica for his keen appreciation

and encouragement of my project, Scarlette Modica for her enthusiastic assistance in collecting and curating materials for art

making, Wendy Hobbs for her whip cracking, feather sorting and child-minding, Graeme Hobbs for his insight and assistance in

all things animal, Ray and Audrey Tschirpig and Jean Hobbs for their input into the talisman collections.

IV

TABLE OF CONTENTS

page

COVER PAGE I

DECLARATION II

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS III

TABLE OF CONTENTS IV

SUMMARY V

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS VI

PROJECT PROPOSAL 1

brief description 2

rationale 20

methods 23

DOCUMENTATION OF PROJECT 24

overview 25

DOCUMENTATION OF EXAMINATION PRESENTATION 84

EXHIBITION HISTORY FOR ARTWORKS PRODUCED DURING THE CANDIDACY 107

APPENDIX 109

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES 110

ANNEXURE A

V

SUMMARY

Drawing on my personal experience of Postnatal Depression, I will conduct practice-based research that explores the complex

notions of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ motherhood, using vehicles such as the Animal Wife motif, talismans, amulets, charms and other

objects that suggest the possibility of protective/preventative escape through transformation. The project will be realised using

sculpture, drawing, object making and print media.

VI

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FIGURES

figure 1 Jenny Nyström, De tre valkyriorna vid Ulvsjön, 1893, illustration. 2

figure 2 William Adolphe Bouguereau, The Virgin of the Lilies, 1899, oil on canvas. 4

figure 3 Louise Élisabeth Vigee Le Brun,

Madame Vigee Lebrun and her daughter, Jeanne Lucie Louise, 1789, oil on linen. 4

figure 4 Harpic Power Plus, 2006, video still. 4

figure 5 AScandalouslyFabulousLife, How Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt Go Against the ‘Norm’, 2012. 4

figure 6 Anonymous, Swan Lake, poster print. 5

figure 7 20th Century Fox, Natalie Portman as White Swan, 2010, photograph. 5

figure 8 20th Century Fox, Natalie Portman as Black Swan, 2010, photograph. 5

figure 9 LaBoca, Black Swan, 2010, poster. 5

figure 10 Penguin Books, The Black Swan: the impact of the highly improbable, 2008, book cover. 5

figure 11 CBS News, Elisa Baker, Held on Charge Related to Missing N.C. girl, 2010, photograph. 7

figure 12 Richard Chamberlain, Lindy with Azaria, 1980, photograph. 7

figure 13 Associated Free Press, Gerry and Kate McCann have spoken of their fears

of never finding their missing daughter Madeleine, 2010, photograph. 7

figure 14 Louise Bourgeois, Femme Maison series, 1945-47, oil on canvas. 8

figure 15 Louise Bourgeois, Untitled, 1943, ink on paper. 9

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figure 16 Sally Mann, Emmett’s Bloody Nose, 1985, silver gelatin print. 11

figure 17 Julie Blackmon, Candy, 2007, pigment ink print. 11

figure 18 Anne Noble, Ruby’s Room #10, 2000 , digital inkjet print on Hahnemuhle rag. 11

figure 19 Toni Wilkinson, M/Other #7, 2009, giclee print. 11

figure 20 Kiki Smith, Lying with the Wolf, 2001, ink and pencil on paper. 12

figure 21 Kiki Smith, Wearing the Skin, 2001, ink and pencil on paper. 12

figure 22 Kiki Smith, Rapture, 2001, bronze. 12

figure 23 Jennifer Mills, Hello there (hell here) II, 2008, watercolour, ink and oil pastel on paper. 14

Figure 24 Jennifer Mills, Visual distraction, 2008, watercolour, ink and oil pastel on paper. 14

figure 25 Eye Italia, Hand Ex-Votos, 2013, photograph. 16

figure 26 La Mariposa Gallery, 20 vintage Milagros, 2012, photograph. 16

figure 27 Eleanor Brown Boutique, Flaming Heart Milagros, 2013, photograph. 16

figure 28 Black as Jet, Whitby Jet locket, 2013, photograph. 16

figure 29 Eleanor Brown Boutique, Gold Eye Mask Milagros, 2012, photograph. 16

figure 30 Anonymous, Portrait miniature on ivory of Officer of the 1st Royal Dragoons Richard Crosse

Circa 1770, 1770, oil on ivory. 16

figure 31 Janet Russek, Doll Arm for Milagros, 2013, silver gelatin print. 16

figure 32 The Jewellery Loop, Gold mourning brooch with seed pearls containing hair, 2013, photograph. 16

figure 33 Deborah Klein, Campylotes Desgonsini Moth Mask, 2007, oil pastel on paper. 17

figure 34 Beata Batorowicz, Little Fox with Fairytales, 2012, acrylic on paper. 17

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figure 35 Jennifer Mills, batself, 2009, watercolour and ink on paper. 17

figure 36 Rebecca Horn, The Feathered Prison Fan, 1978, feathers, metal, wood. 17

figure 37 Martha McDonald, The Weeping Dress, 2011, crepe paper, cotton. 22

figure 38 Nick Cave, Soundsuit, 2008, human hair. 22

figure 39 Marcus Coates, Journey To A Lower World, 2004, performance still. 22

figure 40 Gustav Dore, The Ancient Mariner, 1876, etching. 42

figure 41 Meret Oppenheim, Object (Breakfast in Fur), 1936, Chinese gazelle fur. 61

figure 42 Nalda Searles, Vixen, 2008, animal fur, satin binding (blanket edging), silk thread. 65

figure 43 Rosslynd Piggott, La somnambule (the sleepwalker), 1997, silk, hooks,

coat hangers, perspex, stainless steel. 65

figure 44 Milagros De la Torres, Bulletproof, 2008, archival digital print on cotton paper. 65

figure 45 Kate Bergin, Call of the Highly Improbable, 2009, oil on canvas. 66

figure 46 Douglas Annand, Australia. Commonwealth Games, Perth, Nov. 22 - Dec 1, 1962, 1962. 66

figure 47 Unknown, Anna Pavlova with Jack – a favourite swan, 1905, photograph. 66

figure 48 Danielle Hobbs, Black Swan on the Murray River, Mildura, 2009, digital photograph. 66

figure 49 Donald McMurdo, Australian Ballet performance of Swan Lake, swans, 1991. 66

figure 50 Alexander McQueen, Dress of black duck feathers, Horn of Plenty, 2009-2010. 68

figure 51 Unknown Wailaki Artist, Native American Navajo Condor feather cloak, late 1800’s. 69

figure 52 Anni Rapinoya, The Coat of Child Earth, 2006, Järviruoko common reed. 69

figure 53 Image Envision, Mahomedan woman in traditional dress, a dark cloak

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covering her entire body, Mostar, Herzegovina, Austro-Hungary, c 1890-1900. 69

figure 54 Joseph Merrett, J., Four Māori girls and one young Māori man, 1846. 69

figure 55 Alexandra Verschueren, Origami Cloak, 2009, paper. 69

figure 56 William Bracegirdle, Scarlet Cloake, 1751, wool, silk. 69

figure 57 Manuela Biocca, Victorian Woman Cloak, 2011, textile. 70

figure 58 Joseph Beuys, Felt Suit, 1970, felt. 71

PLATES

All plates are the work of the candidate unless otherwise stated.

plate 1 Collecting jars, 2007 – 2013. 26

plate 2 Cathexis, 2012, glass jars, chicken bones, quail bones, eyelashes, Father Christmases,

dandelion, coins, dimensions variable. 26

plate 3 Talisman scans, 2011. 29

plate 4 Talisman scans, 2011. 30

plate 5 Drawing-a-day project, 2011, computer printout paper, 24.2 x 29.7cm (24.2 x 1871 cm) 33

plate 6 Drawing-a-day project, 2011, 34

plate 7 Hugs and Kisses/Noughts and Crosses #1, 2011, Magnani Corona paper, 75cm x 75cm. 36



plate 10 Knitting Nancy lengths, 2011, wool, cotton, hair, dimensions variable. 37

X

plate 11 Knitting Nancy lengths, 2011. 37

plate 12 Checking measurements of Knitting Nancy lengths, 2011. 37

plate 13 Installing A Woman’s Work is Never Done, 2012, LEAP Project Space. 38

plate 14 Detail of A Woman’s Work is Never Done, 2012. 38

plate 15 Knitting more length during installation of A Woman’s Work is Never Done. 38

plate 16 A Woman’s Work is Never Done, 2012, LEAP Project Space . 39

plate 17 Talisman for L., 2011, digital collage, 25cm x 27.25cm. 40

plate 18 Talisman for S., 2011, digital collage, 25cm x 27.25cm. 40

plate 19 Talisman work in progress, 2011-12, mixed media, dimensions variable. 41

plate 20 Talisman work in progress, 2011-12, mixed media, dimensions variable. 41

plate 21 Drawing for possible photographic work, 2011, pencil on paper, approx 10cm x 10cm. 42



plate 24 Talisman for L., 2012, mixed media, dimensions variable. 43

plate 25 Talisman for S., 2012, mixed media, dimensions variable. 43

plate 26 Detail, Talisman for L., 2012. 44

plate 27 Detail, Talisman for S., 2012. 44

plate 28 Sorting emu feathers. 47

plate 29 Cutting caplet. 47

plate 30 Pinning caplet. 47

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plate 31 Pinning caplet. 47

plate 32 Preparing feathers for sewing. 47

plate 33 Preparing porcelain teeth for sewing. 47

plate 34 Detail, teeth positioning. 47

plate 35 Feather side, Fight or Flight (a reversible caplet for shifting psychological states), 2012,

wool, porcelain teeth, cotton, emu feathers, button, dimensions variable. 47

plate 36 Teeth side, Fight or Flight (a reversible caplet for shifting psychological states), 2012,

wool, porcelain teeth, cotton, emu feathers, button, dimensions variable. 47

plate 37 Detail, Fight or Flight (a reversible caplet for shifting psychological states), 2012 48

plate 38 Detail, Fight or Flight (a reversible caplet for shifting psychological states), 2012, 48

plate 39 Detail, The Wish Dress (being Dorothy), 2012, dress, quail and chicken bones,

eyelashes, cotton, glass, cork, dimensions variable. 50

plate 40 Detail, The Wish Dress (being Dorothy), 2012. 50

plate 41 Detail of chicken bone buckle, The Wish Dress (being Dorothy), 2012. 50

plate 42 The Wish Dress (being Dorothy), 2012, dress, quail and chicken bones, eyelashes, 50

plate 43 Detail of quail wishbones, The Wish Dress (being Dorothy), 2012. 50

plate 44 Detail of eyelash vial, The Wish Dress (being Dorothy), 2012. 50

plate 45 Detail of carp scales. 52

plate 46 Sorting carp scales. 52

plate 47 Detail, carp scales. 52

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plate 48 Detail, carp scales. 52

plate 49 Sorting carp scales. 53

plate 50 Trialling carp scale placement. 53

plate 51 Trialling carp scale placement. 53

plate 52 Woman’s woollen coat. 54

plate 53 Unpicked woman’s coat. 54

plate 54 Repurposing the woman’s coat. 55

plate 55 Sketching plans and making tabs for repurposed coat. 55

plate 56 Repurposed coat. 55

plate 57 Decomposing echidna. 56

plate 58 Detail of decomposing echidna. 56

plate 59 Sorting echidna quills into sizing groups. 56

plate 60 Detail, echidna quills. 56

plate 61 Detail, stitching in progress. 57

plate 62 Stitching in progress. 57






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plate 69 Fox tails. 60

plate 70 Reworking the school trousers. 60

plate 71 Foxing (daywear for sly and cunning), 2012, trousers, foxtail, zip, cotton, dim. variable. 60

plate 72 Foxing (daywear for sly and cunning) , 2012. 60

plate 73 Foxing (daywear for sly and cunning) , 2012. 60

plate 74 Preparing rose thorns for sewing. 62

plate 75 Preparing rose thorns for sewing. 62

plate 76 Sewing rose thorns into maternity bra cups. 62

plate 77 Sewing rose thorns onto maternity bra shoulder straps. 62

plate 78 Detail, rose thorn areola. 62

plate 79 Detail, inserting wire into maternity bra. 62

plate 80 MATERNITY, 2012, repurposed maternity bra, rose thorns, cotton, dimensions variable. 63

plate 81 Woman’s wool blazer for the foundation of Transformation (the Animal Wife), 2012. 72

plate 82 Collected feathers from field trip to Lake Purrumbete. 73

plate 83 Arrival of purchased black dyed swan feathers. 74

plate 84 Black dyed swan feathers. 74

plate 85 Sorting and sewing black dyed swan feathers. 74

plate 86 Detail of sewing the black dyed swan feathers to the wool blazer. 74

plate 87 Dye stained fingertips. 75

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plate 88 Detail of stitching style. 75

plate 89 Detail of sleeve. 75

plate 90 Partially finished jacket back. 76

plate 91 Partially finished jacket side. 76

plate 92 Partially finished jacket front. 76

plate 93 Detail of jacket breast. 76

plate 94 Detail of jacket breast and shoulder. 76

plate 95 Detail of jacket collar. 77

plate 96 Detail of jacket collar and shoulders. 77

plate 97 Transformation (the Animal Wife), wool jacket, feathers, cotton, dimensions variable. Photo: J Modica 78

plate 98 Presentation trial for Talisman for L., Talisman for S., RMIT School of Art Gallery 79

plate 99 Presentation trial for the boy’s wardrobe, RMIT School of Art Gallery. 80

plate 100 Presentation trial for the girl’s wardrobe, RMIT School of Art Gallery. 80

plate 101 Presentation trial for the boy’s and girls’ wardrobe, RMIT School of Art Gallery. 80

plate 102 Cutting the wallpaper to size. 82

plate 103 Tacking the wallpaper up. 82

plate 104 Rubbing dry pastel into the wallpaper surface. 82

plate 105 Wallpaper window hung. 82

plate 106 Rubbing dry pastel into the wallpaper surface. 82

plate 107 Transformation (the Animal Wife), 2013, video still. 83

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plate 108 installed Transformation (the Animal Wife) 85 plate 109 installed Transformation (the Animal Wife) 86 plate 110 Transformation (the Animal Wife) 87 plate 111 Transformation (the Animal Wife) 87 plate 112 Transformation (the Animal Wife) 88 plate 113 installed boys and girls wardrobes 89 plate 114 boys wardrobe 90 plate 115 girls wardrobe 91 plate 116 Foxing (daywear for sly and cunning) detail 92 plate 117 Foxing (daywear for sly and cunning) 92 plate 118 PROTECTIVE COAT (a boy in echidna’s clothing) detail 93 plate 119 PROTECTIVE COAT (a boy in echidna’s clothing) detail 93 plate 120 The Wish Dress (being Dorothy) 94

plate 121 The Wish Dress (being Dorothy) detail 94 plate 122 The Wish Dress (being Dorothy) detail 94 plate 123 Fight or Flight (a reversible caplet for shifting psychological states) 95

plate 124 Fight or Flight (a reversible caplet for shifting psychological states) detail 95

plate 125 Little Mermaid Legs (anti-drowning tights) 96

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plate 126 Little Mermaid Legs (anti-drowning tights) detail 96 plate 127 Little Mermaid Legs (anti-drowning tights) detail 96 plate 128 installed Talisman for L. and Talisman for S. 97

plate 129 installed Talisman for L. and Talisman for S. 97

plate 130 Talisman for L. 98

plate 131 Talisman for S. 98

plate 132 installed Transformation (the Animal Wife) and MATERNITY 99 plate 133 MATERNITY 100 plate 134 MATERNITY 100 plate 135 Transformation (the Animal Wife) video still, Transformation (the Animal Wife) photograph,

The Talsiman Source Book 101 plate 136 Transformation (the Animal Wife) video still, Transformation (the Animal Wife) photograph and Transformation (the Animal Wife). 102 video Transformation (the Animal Wife) 103 plate 137 The Talsiman Source Book 104 plate 138 The Talsiman Source Book 105 plate 139 The Talsiman Source Book 105

1

PROJECT PROPOSAL

2

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

Introduction

In the centuries-old fairy tale of the Swan Maiden, a man sees a white swan shed her feathered robe to bathe, revealing a

beautiful maiden. He steals the enchanted garment preventing the Swan Maiden from flying away so she will marry him and

bear his children. The children eventually give away the robe’s hiding place, enabling

the Swan Maiden to transform again into her swan shape and flee, leaving her husband

and children behind.1 This, and other Animal Wife narratives such as Selkie, The Dove Girl

and Donkeyskin, are examples of fairy tales featuring transformation in which the animal

becomes a wife or the woman avoids becoming a wife through disguising herself as an

animal, often through the agency of an enchanted garment or animal skin. The Swan

Maiden’s desire to escape the demands and responsibilities of marriage and

motherhood sees the Animal Wife motif serve as a metaphor for ‘aberrant’ woman or -

of specific relevance to this project - reluctant, negligent or ‘bad’ motherhood.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Valkyries_wit

h_swan_skins.jpg

fig. 1

1 The Aarne–Thompson Classification System groups fairy tale types. The Swan Maiden is an Animal Wife, motif number 400. Other Animal Wife motifs are found across cultures, in Italy she is a dove, in Scotland she is a Selkie (seal), in Croatia she is a she-wolf, in parts of Africa she is a buffalo.

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From the beginnings of civilisation, words for a ‘mother’ were embedded into languages. But the word ‘motherhood’ - referring

to the qualities or spirit of being a mother,2 only entered the English vernacular at the turn of the 17th century.3 Since its

inception, the terms and conditions of motherhood have been regularly redefined by Western cultures, as women’s access to

social security and healthcare, land ownership and equal pay among other things, have changed over the centuries.4

I will be constructing a body of artworks that explore the underlying ideologies of motherhood (values, beliefs and sets of

meanings) that construct the identity of being a mother in Western culture. However, in contrast to the dominant image of

woman as instinctive nurturer and natural mother (fig. 3) - personified in its most extreme form in the iconography of the

Madonna and Child (fig. 2) - I will be examining the pressures such unrealistic role models exert on mothers who do not

conform to social ideals of motherhood. In particular, I will be focusing on motherhood suffering the added burden of

Postnatal Depression, a condition affecting upwards of 15% of Australian women5. Symptoms can include feelings of

inadequacy and worthlessness and believing that one is a failure as a mother. These can alternate with feelings of extreme

anger, resentfulness or irritability, resulting in guilt or shame in women who had expected to be extremely happy and fulfilled by

the birth of a child6. Such feelings of failure are amplified in the face of the idealised, idyllic and celebratory motherhood (fig.

4-5) one is constantly exposed to in advertising and popular media.

2 Dictionary.com, ‘motherhood’, dictionary.com [webpage], 2011 <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/motherhood> accessed 24 April 2011. 3 Ann Dally, Inventing Motherhood: The Consequences of an Ideal, Shocken Books, New York, 1982, p. 17. 4 Rosalind Barnett and Caryl Rivers, Same Difference: How Gender Myths are Hurting Our Relationships, Our Children, and Our Jobs, Basic Books, New York, 2004, p. 212. 5 Beyondblue ‘What is Postnatal Depression?’, Beyondblue [webpage], 2011 <http://www.beyondblue.org.au/index.aspx?link_id=94> accessed 05 May 2011. 6 Paula Nicolson, Postnatal Depression: Facing the Paradox of Loss, Happiness and Motherhood, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester, 2001, pp. 25-29.

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http://www.artgallery.sa.gov.au/ags

a/home/Collection/detail.jsp?ecatK

ey=733

http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/loui

se-elisabeth-vigee-le-brun/madame-

vigee-lebrun-and-her-daughter-

jeanne-lucie-louise-1789

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

DgsEJ-I0VB8

http://www.ascandalouslyfabulouslif

e.com/ascandalouslyfabulouslife/ho

w-angelina-jolie-brad-pitt-go-

against-the-norm.html

fig. 2 3 4 5

Myths and fairy tales present some of the few spaces in which the darker aspects of motherhood are openly given voice, while

the shape-shifting that occurs within these stories suggests the possibility of splitting our conflicted selves, or transforming from

‘bad’ to ‘good’ and vice versa. English writer Nicholas Royle theorises that the uncanny has to do with a sense of “self as

double, split or at odds with ourselves”7. This can be likened to the Animal Wife narrative in which the animal persona exists in

conflict with her human persona. Key to these narratives is the presence of a garment or charm with shamanistic powers to

transport or transform the wearer between states of being, acting as a conduit between binary opposites of the self.

In this research project I will explore ideologies of motherhood and the contradictions and complexities of ‘good’ and ‘bad’

motherhood. I will draw on my firsthand experience of Postnatal Depression and the inherent binaries of Animal Wife narratives

- in particular the Black Swan motif - focusing on the fluid, transformative spaces between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ motherhood. The

project will be realised through the creation of garments that suggest escape through transformation, and talismans, amulets

and charms that embody the dual purposes of watching over the child in the mother’s absence and shielding the child from

the ‘bad’ mother’s presence. I will be exploring the role that psychologically loaded materials such as hair, fingernails, bones

7 Nicholas Royle, The Uncanny, Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2003, p. 6.

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and feathers can play in imparting shamanistic resonances onto garments and talismans, thereby amplifying allusions to

transformation, and the role of photography in contextualising and activating such garments and talismans.

Background

The tale of the Swan Maiden goes back centuries, appearing in differing forms in both Eastern and Western literature8 with the

white swan symbolising the epitome of feminine virtue. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake9 (fig. 6) expands on the tale

of the Swan Maiden, with the Russian composer requiring his lead ballerina to inhabit two roles, the virtuous white swan Odette

and her conspiring antithesis Odile, the black swan. David Aronofsky’s 2010 film The Black Swan (fig. 9) explores the

psychological conflict that plagues Prima Ballerina Nina - a ‘natural’ Odette - as she is pushed to plumb the darkest corners of

herself in order to access the necessary wickedness for Odile. Aronofsky perpetuates archetypes of femininity through pitting

Nina’s ‘good’ white swan self (fig. 7) against her ‘bad’ black swan self (fig. 8).

http://www.worldart.com.au

/swan-lake/

http://www.fanpop.com/clu

bs/black-

swan/images/20004601/title/

new-black-swan-still-photo

http://www.flix66.com/2011/

03/28/win-a-copy-of-black-

swan-on-dvd-starring-

academy-award-winner-

natalie-portman/

http://www.fubiz.net/2010/12

/13/black-swan-posters/

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bl

ack-Swan-Impact-Highly-

Improbable/dp/0141034599

fig. 6 7 8 9 10

8 Joseph Jacobs, ‘The Swan Maidens’, SurLaLune Fairy Tales [webpage], (2007) <http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/jacobs/european/swanmaidens.html> accessed 30 August 2011, 9 A.Lindsay Price, Swans of the World: In Nature, History, Myth and Art, Council Oak Publishing Company Inc., Tulsa, 1994, pp. 85-86.

6

In Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s exploration of probability The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable (fig.10), the native

Australian bird serves as a metaphor for previously unimaginable phenomena that can retrospectively be rationalised with

hindsight.10 The metaphor developed out of a maxim by Roman satirist Juvenal, who wrote in 82AD that a perfect wife is a

“rare bird… very like a black swan”.11 For centuries the black swan existed in the European imagination as a metaphor for the

impossible or that which did not exist. Prior to the late 17th century, European experience of swans suggested that they were

an exclusively white bird.12 By equating an ideal wife, and by extension mother, with an ,‘impossible’ black swan, Juvenal

implied that the former was as unlikely as the latter. When, in 1697, a Dutch expedition to Australia discovered two black swans

at the mouth of a river, preconceived ideas of the swan as an exclusively white bird were turned on their heads.13 The

existence of black swans was subsequently rationalised as having always been possible after all, forcing a re-examination of

the very notion of the swan. In an example of unfortunate serendipity, when I was starting out on this project, youths stoned a

black swan to death in Moonee Ponds as she was nesting.14 The swan’s refusal to abandon her single egg at the cost of her life

epitomises the idealised archetype of the ‘good’ mother, refuting centuries old superstitions surrounding black animals as

inherently evil.15 In this instance the biological ‘rare bird’ - the black swan - also embodied its metaphorical equivalent, the

perfect wife/mother.

10 Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, Random House, New York, 2007, pp. xvii-xx. 11 Rara avis in terris nigroque simillima cycno (Juvenal 82AD 6.165) Translation: a rare bird in the lands and very like a black swan. 12 A. Lindsay Price, Swans of the World: In Nature, History, Myth and Art, pp. 81-82. 13 Ibid. p. 82. 14 Shannon Deery, ‘Teens beat and torture swan to death in Queens Park, Moonee Ponds’, Herald Sun [webpage], 2011 <http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/teens-beat-torture-swan-to-death-in-queens-park-moonee-ponds/story-fn7x8me2-1226035040487> accessed 09 April 2011.

15 In Macbeth, Shakespear sees the Raven as the herald of misfortune, in the middle ages in Europe black cats were believed to be witches’ familiars, vampire bats are associated with Dracula and other fictitious bloodsucking monsters, depression was referred to by Winston Churchill as a black dog.

7

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-

20019373-504083.html

Fairy tales have a long history of constructing archetypes of good and evil

motherhood through the various guises of Queen, fairy godmother, malevolent

stepmother, witch and crone. Contemporary media culture continues to use

these archetypes to frame their stories. American Elisa Baker (fig. 11) is depicted

in American and Australian media as the jealous and ugly stepmother, facing up

to 30 years in jail for the murder of her 10 year old, disabled Australian

stepdaughter Zahra Baker. fig. 11

Australian Lindy Chamberlain (fig. 12), whose daughter Azaria disappeared from the family’s tent at Ayres Rock (Uluru) in

August 198016 and UK’s Kate McCann (fig. 13), whose daughter Madeline disappeared from the family’s holiday villa in

Portugal in May 2007,17 were also depicted by global media as infanticidal Medea’s.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/lindy-chamberlain-creighton-

delighted-saga-is-over-after-ruling-that-a-dingo-killed-azaria/story-fnat7dag-

1226391525114

http://www.news.com.au/world-old/we-fear-the-hunt-for-maddie-is-ending-

say-kate-and-gerr-mccann/story-e6frfkyi-1225947547847

fig. 12 13

16 Richard Creighton, ‘Azaria Chantel Loren Chamberlain’, Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton [webpage], 2010 <http://www.lindychamberlain.com/content/home> accessed 20 July 2011. 17 Margarette Driscoll, ‘Kate McCann reveals thoughts of suicide over Madeleine's disappearance’, News Limited [webpage], 2011 <http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/kate-mccann-reveals-thoughts-of-suicide-over-madeleines-disappearance/story-e6frg6so-1226051975341> accessed 20 July 2011.

8

Both women were assumed guilty of, at worst, murdering their own child or at best being a negligent mother, with Postnatal

Depression being touted as a contributing factor in both cases.18 Driven by my own dark secret of ‘bad’ motherhood I started

to collect news articles about parents, particularly mothers, who harmed, neglected, or committed infanticide on their own

children. In hindsight I understand that I was searching for reassurance that I wasn’t indeed that bad. I began to wonder

whether I might also use the cultural complexities and contradictions surrounding the black swan as a vehicle for exploring the

fluid spaces between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ motherhood, and thereby challenge conventional binaries and archetypes by

allowing for the possibility of a ‘good enough’ mother.19

Review of Literature and Current Practice

In 2004 art historian, curator, and Kunsthalle Bielefeld Museum director Thomas

Kellein began working with Louise Bourgeois on her exhibition La Famille. The

exhibition included the Femme Maison20 painting series (fig.14) drawing from her

experience as housewife and mother in the post war years when she was raising

her young family in New York. In the accompanying catalogue Kellein writes that

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/oct/0

7/louise.bourgeois

fig. 14

18 There are many news reports linking Postnatal Depression to both women. Two examples are: Janet Fife-Yeomans and Paul Toohey, ‘Slowly building a murder case against Lindy Chamberlain’, The Daily Telegraph [webpage], 2010 <http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/slowly-building-a-murder-case-against-lindy-chamberlain/story-e6freuzr-1225903189677> accessed 25 August 2011, and skepticlawyer, ‘Azaria, again’, skepticlawyer [webpage], 2007 <http://skepticlawyer.com.au/2007/09/09/azaria-again/> accessed 30 August 2011. 19 Donald Woods Winnicott was a mid-twentieth century English paediatrician, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who coined the term “the good enough mother”. To Winnicott, the concept of the perfect or ideal mother was not only unrealistic but also undesirable. Just as the mother who is also a virgin is the stuff of myth or faith, the mother who denies her feelings of ambivalence at times or feels a need to be “the best” will inevitably fail and could most possibly pass that sense of failure onto the child. Ana. Newbold, ‘Picturing Mother and Child’, Inkblot [webpage], (2011) <http://inkblotreview.blogspot.com/2011/03/picturing-mother-and-child.html> accessed 05 October 2011.

20 Louise Bourgeois, 'Femme Maison’ series 1945-47 cited in Will Gompertz, ‘My life in art: The day Bourgeois moved me to tears’, Guardian News and Media Limited [webpage], 2008 <http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/oct/07/louise.bourgeois> accessed 01 June 2011.

9

“she is a woman who loved her husband, then wrestled her freedom from him, all the while experiencing her inner solitude as

depression, her children as a joy and then as a burden, her home as a font of freedom, as a prison and as a constructed

world”.21

Bourgeois was familiar with the dichotomy of the mother/artist

struggle and made works throughout her career depicting the ‘bad’

mother, including the small ink drawing of a Chronos like figure

devouring her child (fig. 15). When questioned about this work

Bourgeois replied, “I want to abolish them … because they are such

a burden. The only way of making them disappear is to eat them,

the way spies during the war used to get rid of evidence by

swallowing it.”22 It is worth mentioning that the majority of the early

drawings and paintings concerning Bourgeois’ role as a mother were

not widely viewed, published or written about at any length until she

was well into her nineties. Why would such an openly self-referential

artist archive such a large component of her work?

Bourgeois, L., Untitled 1943, in Thomas Kellein ‘Louise Bourgeois: la

famille’ (Verlag der Buchhandlung Walter König, Köln, 2006), p. 75.

fig. 15

21 Thomas Kellein, Louise Bourgeois Louise Bourgeois: la famille, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walter König, Köln, 2006, p. 8.

22 Louise Bourgeois, 1998, cited in Thomas Kellein, Louise Bourgeois Louise Bourgeois: la famille, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walter König, Köln, 2006, p. 74.

10

A scan of psychological and sociological literature such as the Journal of Marriage and Family,Journal of Sociology, Journal of

Feminist Family Therapy and Journal of Career Development reveal numerous articles about the realities of motherhood.

Likewise, countless books including The Myths of Motherhood,23 Inventing Motherhood,24 A Woman Born,25 and Same

Difference26 serve to contextualise first person experience of motherhood within the broader parameters of politics, feminism,

women’s studies, literature, music, film and television, theatre and philosophy. This suggests that motherhood has been a

comprehensively researched subject and yet, as American poet Alicia Ostriker points out, the great universal subjects of art

may well be love, sex and death but that ‘pregnancy and birth remain taboo'.27 What happens after birth – motherhood – is

worse than taboo, it is simply pedestrian.

A number of artists, notably photographers, have endeavoured to make artwork about the maternal experience, however in

most instances the camera has been turned on the child/ren. American Sally Mann’s 1992 book Immediate Family records her

three children over an eight-year period (fig. 16). Compatriot Julie Blackmon’s Domestic Vacations (2008-2012) captures a

“Jan Steen household”28 in disarray, teeming with rowdy children and boisterous family gatherings (fig. 17). New Zealander

Anne Noble’s Ruby’s Room (1998-2006) (fig. 18) documents some of the things children do with their mouths in daily life.29

23 Shari L. Thurer, The Myths of Motherhood: How Culture Reinvents the Good Mother, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1994. 24 Ann Dally, Inventing Motherhood: The Consequences of an Ideal, Shocken Books, New York, 1982. 25 AC Rich, Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution, Norton, New York, 1976. 26 Rosalind Barnett, and Caryl Rivers, Same Difference: How Gender Myths are Hurting Our Relationships, Our Children, and Our Jobs, Basic Books, New York, 2004. 27 Rachel Power, The Divided Heart: Art and Motherhood, Red Dog, Fitzroy, 2008, p. 3. 28 The Dutch proverb "a Jan Steen household" originated in the 17th century, named after Dutchman Jan Steen’s bustling paintings and is used to refer to a home in disarray, full of rowdy children and boisterous family gatherings. 29 There are inspiring men who have made photographic series about family life, though with less likelihood of being pigeon holed, my favourite being Emmet Gowin’s photographs of family in Danville, Virginia taken between 1966 and 1975, Robert Frank’s images created after the death of his daughter in 1971 and up until his son’s death in 1995.

11

Mann, S., Emmett’s Bloody Nose 1985, in

‘Sally Mann: Immediate Family’ (Aperture

Foundation Inc., New York, 1992), p. 58.

http://www.julieblackmon.com/Portfolio.cfm?nK=312

http://www.aucklandartgallery.com/the-

collection/browse-artists/2132/anne-noble

fig. 16 17 18

It has been difficult to locate any work about the impact of motherhood on the

mother, one of the few exceptions30 being Australian photographer Toni

Wilkinson’s series’ M/Other (2009). Child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr Dawn

Barker says of Wilkinson’s work, that it “challenges the stereotyped images of

mothers as stable foundations: [Wilkinson’s] mothers show awkwardness,

detachment, and uncertainty; her children show distress, anger and

ambivalence.”31 Wilkinson’s M/Other #7 (fig.19) shows a woman standing in an

acidic yellow glow in the centre of a darkened room. One arm holds a baby to

her breast, the other hangs limp. Though she is breast-feeding, the scene is

devoid of nurture, comfort or warmth.

Wilkinson, T., M/Other #7, 2009, in Dr. D. Barker,

M/Other Love: the first relationship and the

photography of Toni Wilkinson (Artlink Vol 29, no 3),

pg. 54.

fig. 19

30 Late in my research I also discovered the work of Australian Sophia Xeros-Constantinides, in particular The Bittersweet Embrace of Motherhood. Xeros-Constantinides is an artist and clinician working with perinatal mother-infant distress. She is currently undertaking research for a PhD in Fine Art at Monash University, exploring the visualisation of women's reproductive experiences and the maternal-infant relationship. Sophia Xeros-Constantinides, et al., Bedlam: The Bitter-Sweet Embrace of Motherhood, 2010, Template Publishing, Melbourne, 2010, p. 1.

31 Dr. Dawn Barker, ‘M/Other Love: the first relationship and the photography of Toni Wilkinson’, Artlink, Vol 29, no. 3, 2009, p. 52.

12

She wears $2 Kmart undies, the kind that will be thrown away after the first few weeks of wear, stained with blood, afterbirth

and urine. The bewilderment expressed by Wilkinson’s subjects is suggestive of maternal mental illness, her mothers often

seeming emotionally detached, isolated, marginalised. It is the need to negotiate or escape this psychological space that I will

grapple with in this project via the Swan Maiden/Animal Wife motif.

Motherhood and transformation are both addressed, albeit indirectly, in the work by American artist Kiki Smith. Smith returns to

classical mythology, religious iconography and fairy tales in her explorations of the transformative themes of birth, death and

resurrection through feminine archetypes. In Lying with the Wolf (fig. 20), Wearing the Skin (fig. 21), and Rapture (fig.22), the

patron saint of Paris, St. Genevieve “commun[es] with a wolf, tak[es] shelter with its pelt, and [is] born from its womb,”32

http://www.pbs.org/art21/slideshow/popup.php?slide=254

http://www.dailyartfixx.com/2011/01/18/kiki-smith-sculpture/

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/english/graduate/issue/2/sarah.htm

fig. 20 21 22

simultaneously alluding to myths of nurturing She-Wolves (such as Romulus and Remus) and Little Red Riding Hood’s

32 Ana Otero, ‘Art: 21’, Art: 21series 2, [website], 2003 <http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/smith/> accessed 01 June 2011.

13

resurrection/re-birth from the belly of a wolf. Smith’s work taps into universals and archetypes, whereas my work draws on a

personal experience that is still raw and palpable.

Fairy tales speak of universal dilemmas about the basic human predicament. Bruno Bettleheim sees that “contrary to many

modern children’s stories, in fairy tales evil is as omnipresent as virtue. In practically every fairy tale good and evil are given

body”33 thereby allowing a fuller metaphorical understanding of the world we inhabit and contributing more comprehensively

to a child’s inner growth. Mythologist Marina Warner sees shape-shifting in fairy tales as permission to “dream alternatives”,34

particularly alternatives that allow one to escape a horrible fate or protect oneself from the wrath of another.35 She argues

further that fairy tales are a way of “making sense of universal matters… that they enjoy a more vigorous life than we perhaps

acknowledge, and exert more of an inspiration and influence than we think.”36

Using the fluid medium of watercolour in works such as Hello there (hell here) II (2008) (fig. 23) and Visual Distraction (2008) (fig.

24) Australian artist Jennifer Mills renders highly detailed self-portraits which then undergo transformation into the dark

superhero, Batwoman. Motherhood has demanded Mills chose an art making process she can undertake at home (her studio

is the kitchen table) so that she may fulfil her son’s need for specialised care. Like Mills, I am interested in the escape offered by

a black, winged alter ego and the power of the garment to effect a transformation from the everyday to the

magical/superhuman and transport one to a

33 Bruno Bettleheim, The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales, Random House, New York, 1989, p. 8. 34 Ibid. 35 Bearskin, Selkie (Scottish seals), Donkeyskin,, Kitsune (Japanese fox spirits), the Peacock Maiden, Buffalo Girl to mention a few. 36 Marina Warner, Managing Monsters: Six Myths of Our Time: The 1994 Reith Lectures, Vintage, London, 1994, p. xiii.

14

http://www.darrenknightgallery.com/artists/mills/ColourMeBlack2009/HelloH

ellHereI.htm

http://www.darrenknightgallery.com/artists/mills/ColourMeBlack2009/VisualDist

raction.htm

fig. 23 24

‘better’ place. In my instance it is the black swan rather than the nocturnal bat whose escapist associations I will be

channelling, through the construction of physical garments and talismans.

These artists work together to build a picture of the mother and of transformation in contemporary visual art practice. However

at no point has my research led me to any one artist who is specifically investigating the transforming mother, as a vehicle for

tackling the subject of Postnatal Depression.

15

Proposed Project

For my research project I will draw upon first-person experience of Postnatal Depression and the metaphor of enchanted

transformation to explore strategies for creating talismans and garments that suggest the possibility of reconciliation between

conflicting notions of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ motherhood. The black swan as the Animal Wife will form the chief motif through which

I will explore the fluid spaces between woman and mother, ‘good’ and ‘bad’ mother and the possibilities offered by the

transitional space of ‘good enough’ mothering.

I will produce works that visualise alternative readings of the mother, exposing inconsistencies in expectations of motherhood

through expressions of self-talk, coping mechanisms, and transformation for the purposes of escape and protection. The

objects I produce will include wearable art objects that allude to charms, talismans and amulets, drawing on past and present

cultural traditions from various parts of the world that utilise such items for the purpose of protection, healing or granting wishes.

For example, in Catholic Latin America believers commonly make offerings to saints of small objects fashioned into body parts,

animals, or domestic objects known as milagros (miracles). Similar objects are worn on their person as dijes (charms)37 (figs. 25-

32).

37 Martha Egan, Milagros: Votive Offerings from the Americas, Museum of New Mexico Press, Santa Fe, 1991.

16

http://www.eyeitalia.com/shop/inde

x.php?main_page=product_info&cP

ath=82_85&products_id=411#.UP4H4

uiCXCI

http://www.lamariposagallery.com/

popup_image.php/pID/358?osCsid=

28b0e0832991d546fb53cadbeb08ac

4c

http://eleanorbrownboutique.com/it

em_255/Gold-Tin-Sacred-Heart-

Milagro.htm

http://www.blackasjet.co.uk/

http://eleanorbrownboutique.com/it

em_339/Large-Gold-Eye-Mask-

Milagro-with-Scroll-and-Flower-

Motif.htm

http://imageevent.com/bluboi/fine

http://www.photographydealers.co

m/artists/janet-russek/dolls/

http://www.thejewelleryloop.com/re

member-me/

fig. 25 26 27 28

fig. 29 30 31 32

My research will encompass feminine archetypes and transformation through the construction of animal based props along

the lines of Deborah Klein’s Moth Masks (fig. 33), Beata Batorowicz’s Daughterhood38 and other mask based works (fig. 34),

Jennifer Mill’s Batwoman drawings (fig. 35) and Rebecca Horn’s cocoon-like Feathered Prison Fan39 (fig. 36). My exploration of

the power of the garment to suggest transformation will focus on the production of a black swan robe for the mother and

protective garments adorned with talismans for children, utilising shamanistic resonances of animal biological materials. In

some instances digital photographic prints and video will be used to document the installation and wearing of these objects,

and may also form finished works in their own right that negotiate the space between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ motherhood,

providing insights into the psychological challenges and contradictions of motherhood.

38 Beata Batorowicz, Daughterhood [image], (2004) <http://newsroom.uts.edu.au/news/2011/04/let-me-tell-you-a-story>, accessed 12 May 2011. 39 Rebecca Horn, The Feathered Prison Fan [image], (1978) <http://www.rebecca-horn.de/pages/biography.html>, accessed 12 May 2011.

17

http://www.deborahklein.net/Angels/index.html

http://www.art-almanac.com.au/2012/09/beata-batorowicz-tales-within-historical-spaces/

http://www.darrenknightgallery.com/artists/mills/2011/index.php

http://www.rebecca-horn.de/pages/biography.html

fig. 33 34 35 36

These various processes and outcomes are documented in this Appropriate Durable Record and final works will be presented

in an exam exhibition in the RMIT School of Art Gallery, from the 14th to the 16th of May, 2013.

Main objective

The objective of this project is to create wearable art objects that allude to transformative garments and protective talismans

for motherhood in crisis, in order to offer accessible insights into the challenges and contradictions of Postnatal Depression.

18

Aims

Through this research project I aim to:

• Explore the underlying cultural ideologies of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ motherhood in Australia and the West.

• Explore the fluid tensions between notions of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ motherhood.

• Explore the notion of escape as a strategy for ‘good’ motherhood.

• Investigate the Animal Wife motif, especially the black swan as a vehicle for exploring motherhood in crisis

and the archetypes of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ mothers.

• Explore the repetitive and mechanical nature of traditional women’s work and craft techniques (e.g.

needlecraft, beadwork, featherwork) as coping strategies for motherhood in crisis.

• Explore the talismanic associations of biological materials (such as feathers, wishbones, fingernails, hair,

eyelashes) and non-precious materials/objects (such as copper coins, ceramic shards, plastic toys) to suggest protective

metamorphosis.

• Explore escapist/transformative garments and protective talismans as a strategy for neutralising moments of

crisis.

• Explore image capture (e.g. photography, video) as a means of contextualising and activating the

transformative and protective resonances of the garments and talismans.

19

Research Questions

How might my firsthand experience of Postnatal Depression inform the creation of ‘transformative’ garments and ‘protective’

talismans?

How might the Animal Wife motif, in particular the black swan, serve to explore underlying cultural ideologies of ‘good’ and

‘bad’ motherhood?

20

RATIONALE

Unlike pre-Baby Boomer generations in which the raison d’être of a woman was to raise a family, the decision to become a

mother has become much more open-ended for a contemporary generation of women from developed countries, with

access to contraception, IVF and the opportunities offered by fulfilling careers and financial independence. In the early

eighties American psychiatrist Ann Dally observed that there was a mounting ambivalence toward motherhood and women

were growing increasingly resistant to the idea of becoming a mother because “they know that they will have to devote most

of themselves, and their time and energy to [being a mother] for many years”40 which prevents them from continuing on their

previous work/life trajectory. Dally also discusses a burgeoning opacity surrounding the realities of motherhood “partly because

few people have practical experience of family life with young children before they have their own… and partly because

society tends to idealise the experience of motherhood which means that the darker side is not readily or openly discussed.”41

The truth is that motherhood does not come naturally to all women. My experience of new motherhood did not fit the image I

had conjured for myself prenatally, and was further exacerbated by a diagnosis of Postnatal Depression. In my case the

perceived failure to gracefully transform into a ‘good’ mother compounded by my desire to escape my domestic situation

generated negative self-talk and diminishing self-esteem, returning constantly to the question, “Why am I such a bad mother?”

During the early months of motherhood I developed affirmations, mantras and rituals that enabled me to escape my internal

40 Ann Dally, Inventing Motherhood: The Consequences of an Ideal, Shocken Books, New York, 1982, p. 20. 41 Ibid.

21

torment. A personal rewriting of fairy tales played like films in my mind, with The Swan Maiden narrative resonating especially

with my experience of new motherhood. In a personal re-imagining of the tale, the swan is black rather than white, and only

the mother knows the location of the enchanted robe. Rather than escaping her marriage, my version of the Black Swan uses

the charmed garment to remove herself from moments of maternal crisis, as a protective measure for both the children and

herself. I eventually realised that my fantasies of ‘preventative’ transformation into a Black Swan might in fact constitute ‘good’

mothering, or at the very least ‘good enough’ mothering. Re-imagining the Black Swan as existing somewhere between the

opposing binaries of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ motherhood offered a space for me to come to terms with the complex psychological

challenges of motherhood, something I wish to explore further through the construction of garments and talismans that suggest

transformation and protection.

In his essay ‘Australian Gothic’, Professor Gerry Turcotte considers the darkness that pervades the Australian psyche stating,

“the Antipodes was a world of reversals, the dark subconscious of Britain… the dungeon of the world”42 in which the trees shed

their bark not their leaves, where the swans are black not white, and the seasons are in reverse. Turcotte’s paper resonated

with my transformative experience of motherhood; of being uprooted from my pre-conceived notion of myself as a mother,

and finding myself in a topsy turvy world in which temporarily ‘abandoning’ my children through escapist fantasies was the

most effective strategy for protecting them. Living in Mildura I encounter black swans on a regular basis so I particularly identify

with the Black Swan motif and see the cultural contradictions and complexities that have been invested in this native bird as a

poetic framework for explorations of motherhood in crisis.

42 Gerry Turcotte, ‘Australian Gothic’, in Marie Mulvey-Roberts (ed.), The Handbook to Gothic Literature, Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1998, p. 10.

22

My work will contribute to the ongoing dialogue surrounding feminine archetypes and transformation through the use of

animal-based props in visual arts, however will turn a spotlight on motherhood in crisis and Postnatal Depression, subjects which

remain largely unrepresented in Western visual culture. By subverting the binaries inherent in conventional Black Swan and

Animal Wife narratives and drawing on the intermediate, transformative spaces and states suggested by shamanistic garments

and protective talismans, I will challenge archetypes of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ motherhood and offer a poetic framework for

explorations and validations of the ‘good enough’ mother. I will also contribute to an exploration of the performative potential

of wearable sculptural objects as have Martha McDonald with The Weeping Dress (2011) (fig. 37), Nick Cave’s Soundsuits

(2009) (fig. 38) and Marcus Coates with Pub Shaman (2007) (fig. 39).

http://marthalmcdonald.blogspot.com.au/2012/0

8/the-weeping-dress.html

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-

blog/2010/february/hair-and-everywhere

http://www.artvehicle.com/events/94

fig. 37 38 39

23

METHODS

I will research psychology and mythology, with a focus on the topics of good and bad motherhood, the Animal Wife motif in

fairy tales, the Black Swan motif, in order to explore the underlying cultural ideologies of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ motherhood in

Australia and the West.

I will explore the potential for discarded materials such as chicken bones, hair, feathers, ceramic shards, plastic knick-knacks, to

suggest transcendence from the everyday through ‘shamanistic’ metamorphosis. These materials will be sourced from second-

hand stores, discarded biological material, personal and familial possessions and found objects, and used in the construction

of talismans/charms/amulets and garments. Hair will be collected from hairbrushes, eyelashes will be collected where they fall

and fingernail clippings will be gathered up after manicures. In the process of constructing the garments and talismans framed

by myths of escapist transformation, I will explore the potential of the mechanical, repetitive construction techniques (based

on traditional women’s work such as needlework, weaving, and featherwork), to serve as coping strategies for motherhood in

crisis.

The research will be undertaken at the dual locations of my family home in the Sunraysia region and Melbourne (RMIT University

library and School of Art ADR Reading Room).

24

DOCUMENTATION OF PROJECT

The following pages document the visual research undertaken in the course of this project as well as personal reflections on

process and idea development. While the latter is not strictly required for examination (and is therefore largely informal in

nature), I have nevertheless found the writing to be a useful tool for clarifying my intentions and evaluating my outcomes. I

include it here to offer extra insights to the reader.

25

OVERVIEW

cathexis scans talismans drawings

drawings fight or flight wish dress mermaidlegs

protectivecoat

foxing maternity transformation

26

Cathexis

2011 – ongoing, glass, mixed media.

plate 1 2

In psychoanalysis, cathexis is defined as the process of investment of mental or emotional energy into a person, object, or

idea.43 This is the title for a work that originated as a collection of thistle seeds referred to as ‘Father Christmases’. As a child I

would catch a Father Christmas as it floated by on the breeze, make a wish and rerelease it to ensure the wish would come

true. During the early months of experiencing PND, quite subconsciously I collected these wishes as a backstop or safety net for

my family and me.

43 Wordnik, ‘cathexis - definition and meaning’, Cathexis [website], (2012) <http://www.wordnik.com/words/cathexis>, accessed 17 October 2012.

27

This collection lived on the kitchen bench in a jar and grew as new collections of wishbones, coins, eyelashes, dandelions, salt,

fortunes from cookies and teeth were added to it. These collections were refined and became Cathexis (plate 2), but more

importantly were the beginning of my thinking about the protective nature of talismans and transformative garments.

28

The Talisman Source Book

2011-13, digital printout/artist book, approx. 21 x 29.7 cm.

Cathexis triggered a conscious collecting process whereby I gathered small objects from around the home and began

grouping these together in various arrangements to alter their reading, and manipulate their meaning or potency.

A talisman (amulet, charm) is any object intended to bring good luck or protection to its owner. The owner invests power in the

talisman relative to its personal significance. From a young age I was taught to make wishes on my birthday candles or falling

stars, keep a lock of hair or a photograph in a locket or a stone in my pocket for luck. I find these domestic superstitions

comforting, especially when I am feeling particularly vulnerable.

Early on in the collection phase I realised that the objects needed to have already belonged to me, my mother or my

grandmothers for me to attribute any protective properties to them. This precluded me from buying objects from the antique

or secondhand stores and limited me to what was already in my possession. The possible objects for inclusion were gathered

together and digitally scanned singularly or in small group combinations. This collection of images became a source book of

talismans, included in the examination exhibition.

29

plate 3

30

plate 4

31

Drawing-a-day project

2011, computer printout paper, individual page 24.2 cm x 29.7 cm, total pages 24.2 cm x 1871 cm.

Parallel to the production of the scans, I began a drawing-a-day project using these collected objects and other ideas inspired

by my research into talismans, coping mechanisms, family rituals and significant past experiences of motherhood and PND.

An important component of this work was to use samples of news stories about ‘bad’ parents I began collecting shortly after

the birth of my daughter. This came about as a by-product of using my hotmail account, as I would pause to wait for the Nine

MSN page to come up to ensure I had logged out, I would skim the sensationalised headlines. One day I read a headline

about a man who was on trial for the murder of his daughter. Curious, I clicked on the story and as I read I began to cry

inconsolably about the little girl who died from neglect, discovered on her bedroom floor with black vomit and bull ants

coming from her mouth.44 This article prompted a secretive and obsessive collection over the following four years of articles

about children who had died at the hands of their parents. At the time it was not clear to me why I created this file, but on

reflection through counselling it is apparent that I found some comfort in them as they were proof that I was in fact not as

‘bad’ a parent as I thought I was.

This drawing project was undertaken as a form of stream of consciousness, including readings, ideas, articles, research, sayings,

memories and collections. These were translated into drawings on obsolete computer printout paper. I felt it was important

44 I can no longer access this article from 2007, the following reference supports the original articles content. Anne Manne, ‘Ebony: The Girl in the Room’, The Monthly [website], (2010)

<http://www.themonthly.com.au/girl-room-ebony-anne-manne-2248>, accessed 24 February 2013.

32

that the drawing document be continuous and equitable in its inclusion of every good and bad drawing alike. As such, it

reflects the constant flux between success and failure in daily life, whereby mistakes cannot be edited out, instead embracing

these low points as markers for victories. This in turn fosters an acceptance that one may not necessarily need to conform to

the ideal of a ‘good’ mother in order to be a ‘good enough’ mother.

33

plate 5

34

plate 6

35

Hugs and Kisses/Noughts and Crosses

2011-12, Magnani Corona drawing paper, 75cm x 75cm.

From the drawing-a-day project came a series of larger, more formal drawings that were made in the studio. These works deal

specifically with my personal physical and psychological experiences of Postnatal Depression.

The first drawing Hugs and Kisses/Noughts and Crosses #1 (plate 7) references writing lines for punishment. The single phrase

repetition ‘I am a good mother’ was a personal mantra that I used on particularly bad days. However hidden amongst the

lines are the odd ‘bad mother’ phrases, to acknowledge the inevitable slip of tongue and emphasise the daily battle of

believing in one’s self.

Hugs and Kisses/Noughts and Crosses #2 (plate 8) is a circular image made with graphite. Its creative process involved holding

my arm at shoulder height and repetitively draw a circle on the page. This could take anything from 1 ½ hrs to 4 hrs. As the

graphite pencil pushes into the paper, a mercurial sheen builds up and the paper begins to buckle and warp under the

pressure. This drawing can be read in numerous ways: referencing how we draw a hug, simulating a safe space inside the

circle or a well-worn path. For me however it specifically recalls the circle that I would walk in the liminal space between our

kitchen, dining and lounge rooms. This ritual enabled me to block out the chaos of domestic life and gave me a limited time of

escape, mind numbing yet meditative in its action.

36

The third drawing Hugs and Kisses/Noughts and Crosses #3 (plate 9) is a grid of small squares each with a red cross in it. These

drawings were made using several different mediums including acrylic, gouache, ink, and lipstick. The crosses can be

interpreted as kisses, as days marked off a calendar or as the mark against your name for getting something wrong, in my case

my repeated errors in motherhood.

plate 7 8 9

37

A Woman’s Work is Never Done

2011, Knitting Nancy, wool, nails, dimensions variable.

I came across a bag of Knitting Nancys in an opportunity shop mid 2011 and began French knitting lengths of red using single

and double strands of wools and adding in shorter samples of colour variations to give a greater depth of colour and texture to

the strands (plate 10-11). These experiments originally began as a way to keep

plate 10 11 12

my hands busy during the initial proposal writing and confirmation period, but evolved very quickly into A Woman’s Work is

Never Done (plate 16), exhibited at LEAP, for 2012 International Women’s Day celebrations in Mildura.

38

The text is taken from Margaret Atwood’s poem A Red Shirt45 in which Atwood draws on the goddess myth of Demeter and

Persephone to construct the imagery of a relationship between mother and daughter and the inherent responsibilities of

passing on the lessons of life.

plate 13 14 15

This artwork loops together a number of ideas that I was considering at the time and were woven into the work as it

developed. Ideas such as: women’s work or busy work46, the production of women’s work/artwork/mother’s work is never

finished. I felt the knitted lengths were suggestive of an umbilical cord, resonating with the last line of Atwood’s poem “a long

thread of red blood, not yet broken”.47

45 Margaret Atwood, Selected Poems II: 1976 – 1986, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston, Massachusetts, 2012. 46 It is my observation that French knitting seems to have very little functional responsibility other than keeping one’s hands busy. 47 Margaret Atwood, Selected Poems II: 1976 – 1986, p. 51.

39

plate 16

When this work was dismantled it became the foundation for the talisman neckpieces I was developing.

40

Talisman for L. and Talisman for S.

2011, digital collage, 25cm x 27.25cm and 2011, digital collage, 25cm x 20.33cm

plate 17 18

The inspiration for this work in two parts came from my desire as a mother to protect my children at all times, especially when

they are in the world away from me. While researching various cultural utilisations of the talisman, I began collecting and

collaging (plate 17 and 18) as a beginning point for trialing objects that could be utilised in these final sculptural works.

41

The French knitting lengths from A Woman’s Work is Never Done were fashioned into talismans designed to wrap around the

neck numerous times. Early experiments show considerations of object choice, object placement and techniques of

attachment onto the French knitting sections.

plate 19 20

During the process of creating this work, the weight of the objects and how heavily they would sit around the neck of a child

got me thinking about how heavily a parents wishes, advice, hopes and desires might weigh their child down.

42

http://www.artsycraftsy.com/dore_mariner.html

In Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner the

mariner is forced to wear an albatross around his neck to remind him

of his erroneous behaviour. The feeling of something weighing

heavily on you, having a weight upon your shoulders, wearing your

mistakes as a public shaming has the potential to be developed

further in future works, possibly as a photographic triptych (plates 21,

22 and 23).

fig. 40

plate 21 22 23

43


2011-2013, wool, metallic thread, hair, found objects, dimensions variable.

plate 24 25

Before constructing the final works, the colours and materials of the neck pieces were carefully considered. The grey wool

alludes to the notion that an amulet is more potent the more valuable the material from which it is crafted e.g. silver being

more powerful than copper or brass. The red makes links to the umbilical cord and threads of feminine connectedness

44

between generations. The hair, which has been gleaned from my family’s hairbrushes over several years, connects the physical

with the spiritual, in the same way a medicine man, shaman or witch might use hair to cast a spell or call up the spirits.48

plate 26 27

48 Aboriginal colleague and Barkindji Elder Peter Peterson once told me the story of the Kadaitcha-man, or Feather Foot, who wears slippers made from emu feathers so he can sneak up on you. If he manages to steal some of your hair he can ‘sing you up’ and you will belong to him.

45

Each object included in the final talismans was chosen for reasons ranging from personal to universal. Some examples of items

selected for inclusion are; the dice for taking chances, the music box ballerina for dreams, the mirror for self-reflection, the

scissors for bringing things to an end, the wishbones for wishes, the nappy pin for security, the bluebird for happiness, the glass

lens for clarity and focus, the dragonfly for power and poise, the ballet slipper for grace, the domino for a chain reaction, the

butterfly for transformation, the star for guidance, the frog for love in unexpected places, the rings for eternity, the whistle for

getting attention and the key for access.

While making the neckpieces it became apparent that these objects would be quite cumbersome and impractical to wear in

everyday life, and I imagine it would be quite difficult to convince a child to wear one! This led me to consider the possibility of

surreptitiously stitching talismans into children’s clothing, creating a protective wardrobe of clothes.

46

Fight or Flight (a reversible caplet for shifting psychological states)

2012, wool, porcelain teeth, emu feathers, button, cotton, dimensions variable.

Remembering stories about the Russian royals, the Rominov family, who sewed gems and pearls into the linings and hems of

their clothes with the intention of smuggling them out of the country, I considered how a garment’s purpose could be

reassigned through the addition of significant objects and secretive compartments.

Whilst working on the talismans I imagined a child’s wardrobe full of clothes that had been discretely adjusted or added to by

the mother to alleviate her anxiety in times when the children were in the world beyond the reach of her protective care. This

type of protection through clothing is seen in fairy tales such as Red Riding Hood, in which the mother or grandmother makes a

cloak for her daughter to wear whilst travelling through the forest. The cloak serves a number of purposes both practical and

psychological; it might keep one warm in the chilly air or it might offer symbolic protection from strangers or predators. I was

inspired to make a caplet that might operate on both levels, providing warmth for the child and comfort for the mother.

The caplet references a Northern European style of clothing that is reminiscent of that worn by children in my Grimm fairy tales

book from childhood. I have deliberately implied connections between the garment, enchantment and multiple forms of

protection. The caplet is made from a thick woollen fabric, cut and sewn to be reversible. I have a collection of vintage

porcelain false teeth that I used to stitch onto one side of the garment, giving the child extra teeth to ‘bare’ when

47

plate 28 29 30 plate 31 32 33 plate 34 35 36

48

confronted by danger. The other side has emu feathers that were collected from road kill.49 I enjoy the irony of using the feathers of a flightless bird to assist in ‘flight’ from threat.

This object was the first in my wardrobe of protective clothes for a brother and sister.

plate 37 38

49 The collection of animal materials did not require animal ethics clearance as all animals met an untimely end on the roads around my municipality of Mildura Rural City Council. However the possession of native animal matter does require a permit, which I obtained. See appendix 1.

49

The Wish Dress (being Dorothy)

2011-12, dress, quail and chicken bones, cotton, eyelashes, glass, cork, dimensions variable.

Recognising the greater potency with which clothing with a history is imbued, I made a conscious decision to source pre-

existing garments. I conceived of a children’s wardrobe consisting of a caplet, dress and tights for a girl and pants and a coat

for a boy. These five pieces would become a larger installation of work, a wardrobe of talismanic clothes, each one adjusted

and embellished by the mother to comfort her in the knowledge that her children are protected when they are away from her.

Sourcing an unused girl’s school tunic in an opportunity shop was the beginning of The Wish Dress (being Dorothy) (plate 40).

With assistance from a local restaurateur, I was able to obtain 80+ fragile quail wishbones, which I boiled clean and bleached

to a pure white. Each wishbone was individually hand stitched into the box pleats of the dress front (plates 42 and 43). The

plastic fastener was removed and replaced with a buckle made from chicken wishbones bound together with cotton (plate

41). I stitched a small glass vial (holding eyelashes collected from around my home) to the yolk of the dress in the location

where one would wear a brooch (plate 44). All these items can be used to make wishes: the wishbones snapped in half, the

eyelashes placed on a fingertip and blown into the air. Should a little girl be in need of an emergency wish, all she need do is

break the glass.

50

plate 39 40 41

plate 42 43 44

51

Little Mermaid Legs (anti-drowning tights)

2012, repurposed winter tights, carp scales, cotton, dimensions variable.

The single recurring dream I experienced as a child was centred on my profound fear of drowning in the river. Having grown

up on the Murray I was taught two things at a young age; to have great respect for the unpredictable waters of the river and

how to swim. These lessons are now mine to teach my own children. Herein lies the motivation for constructing the mermaid

legs.

The thick cotton grey tights were sourced from an opportunity shop, chosen for their evidence of previous wear, notably pilling

and thinning in the knees. I embellished these with carp fish scales sourced from discarded fish along the banks of the river

(plate 45). The scales were washed, dried and sized (plate 46) before sewing began. Each scale is pierced twice with a needle

and then stitched onto the tights as you would a button. After trialling several options of scale density (plate 51) I decided on

an offset pattern, spaced slightly apart to avoid replicating actual scales and instead alluding to sequins or beads of

childhood fantasy dress ups. The scales stretch from the toes to the thigh (garter line) where a small amulet is pinned to the left

leg. My grandfather purchased the amulet from a Chinese medicine man; its purpose is to aid breathing and expand lung

capacity. The tights serve a dual purpose; they indulge a young girl’s desire to be a mermaid while also alleviating the

mother’s fears for her daughter’s safety when she is in and around water.

52

plate 45 46

plate 47 48

53

plate 49 50

plate 51

54

PROTECTIVE COAT (a boy in echidna’s clothing)

2012, repurposed wool coat, cotton, echidna quills, dimensions variable.

The fourth work of the wardrobe suite is a warm winter coat for a boy. After spending 40 plus hours on a fleecy grey hoodie I

purchased from a store, I concluded that it was too contemporary to use for this project. I went looking for something a little

more timeless, reminiscent of the clothing worn by children in my Grimm fairy tales book, drawing upon universal notions of

innocence and vulnerability. Unable to source an appropriate pre-

plate 52 53

existing coat I purchased a second-hand woman’s woollen jacket from an opportunity shop, with the intent of remodelling it

into a child’s coat. The woman’s coat was un-picked, the boy’s coat was cut from a number of merged patterns and sewn

together. The only material that was not reused from the original jacket was the cotton with which I stitched it together. In the

55

end, I realised that a re-purposed woman’s coat undergoing transformation into a garment for protecting a child served my

conceptual intentions perfectly.

plate 54 55 56

The coat is a garment for disguise and protection, with it’s own cloaking device like that used by spaceships in Star Wars. These

shielding devices are not employed at all times but used in moments of need. My intention was to create armour for a boy, in

this case a hood which could be pulled up to activate protection, that could be employed at a moment’s notice. The plan

was to use echidna quills, however that was dependent upon an echidna becoming available. I am grateful to a friend in

Merbein, for her gift of a road kill echidna. The monotreme took three months to decompose to a point where I was able to

harvest approximately half the animal’s quills. These were washed, oiled and sorted into size ready for application.

56

plate 57 58 59

The physical attributes of an echidna quill made stitching it to fabric easier than I expected,

requiring no drilling or piercing. I was able to use a double looped running stitch to attach

them to the jacket back and hood. Even so, stitching the quills was tedious, slow and

hazardous, the sewing alone took over 160 hours to complete. I found that the laborious,

repetitive nature of this task and the constant pricks and minor wounds mirrored my

experience of being a mother: a series of painful, repeated challenges that are ultimately

overcome by a compulsion to push on, to achieve a sense of satisfaction as each row is

stitched into place and the task is eventually completed.

plate 60

57

plate 61 62 63

plate 64 65 66

58

plate 67 68

59

Foxing (daywear for sly and cunning)

2012, repurposed school trousers, zip, cotton, eyelet, foxtail, dimensions variable.

Foxes have always been a part of my life, first as a child growing up on a farm and now as the carer of the family pets, our

chickens. The fox is popularly conceived as a stealthy and sly creature that shows traits of cunning desperation in times of

eminent capture. I find the lack of such characteristics in children sweet and endearing, however I am also aware that

innocence, gullibility and naivety can make a child vulnerable to various dangers.

I conceived of a pair of boys grey school trousers with a secret pocket housing a fox’s tail, one that could be tucked out of

sight when not required, but easily accessible in times of need. The tail would be accessed via a zip that wrapped diagonally

from the coccyx, around the left leg to the mid thigh.

Although I am a competent sewer I was nervous about cutting into the fabric of the trousers. I made a practice run but was

not happy enough with the outcome to undertake the final work on my own. For this I engaged the services of a seamstress to

make the pocket. Following my explicit instructions, she made a trial run for me to approve and then began on the final work.

While the seamstress was working on the trousers, I made provision to attach the tail. This included inserting an eyelet through

the leather at the tail’s end, and attaching it to the existing belt loop at the centre back of the trousers via an extra loop. This

method of attachment allows for the tail to swing freely when out of its pocket, suggesting a newfound confidence and

swagger.

60

plate 69 70 71

plate 72 73

61

MATERNITY

2012, repurposed maternity bra, rose thorns, cotton, dimensions variable.

To breastfeed or not to breastfeed, that is the question. As every imminent mother is told, breast milk is regarded as the most

nutritional option for feeding an infant in the first six months of their life, increases resistance to infection and disease and

lessens the risk of allergy and food intolerances50. However it has become quite a battlefield and serves to reinforce

stereotypes of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ mothering. We see conflicting news items about breastfed babies being smarter, happier,

stronger or fussier, behaviourally difficult, harder to settle. Either way a mother is damned.

http://weatheredheights.bl

ogspot.com.au/2010_10_01

_archive.html

Meret Oppenheim’s provocative 1936 sculpture Object (Breakfast in Fur) (fig. 40) inspires an

immediate physical reaction from viewers that deepens into a psychological conflict. The fur is

seductive and tactile yet we are repulsed once we consider what it must be like to take our tea in

such a cup. What does the artist mean by presenting us with such a conundrum? In making

MATERNITY (plate 80) my aim was to inspire the same order of response, inviting the audience in close

only to have them recoil in revulsion before moving back in to satisfy their curiosity. What must it be

like to wear that bra? Why has the artist stitched those thorns in those places? fig. 41

50 Australian Breastfeeding Association ‘Breastfeeding FAQs’, Australian Breastfeeding Association [webpage], 2011 <https://www.breastfeeding.asn.au/bf-info/your-baby-arrives/breastfeeding-faqs> accessed 20 February 2013.

62

MATERNITY reflects the pressure I felt to breastfeed my own babies despite the emotional, psychological and physical toll it

often took. Contrary to the fantasy of the fecund, nurturing mother, my personal experience of breastfeeding was tarnished by

the painful reality of engorged breasts and cracked nipples, pain that was both aggravated and alleviated through the act of

breastfeeding.

plate 74 75 76

plate 77 78 79

63

The maternity bra has thorns stitched into the parts that correspond to

pressure points for feeding mothers: the areola, the breastbone, and

the straps that go over the shoulder and around the body. The bra was

sourced from an opportunity shop, chosen for its skin coloured neutrality

and existing milk stains. The thorns were sourced from a local rose farm’s

green prunings. One by one the thorns were snapped off, had a pin

pushed through them and set aside to dry for around a week. Once

the wood had browned the pin was removed and the thorn could be

stitched as you would a bead to a garment. Snapping thorns from their

stems caused my thumbs to ache and my fingers to become more

sensitive with every prick. All the while I recalled the dual experience of

pain and relief as I fed my child.

plate 80

64

Transformative and protective garments

Whilst conducting research for my project I looked at fashion and garment-based art for examples of garment construction

that suggested the possibility of transformation or maternal protection. I particularly responded to works by Indigenous artist

Nalda Searles, Australian artist Rosslynd Piggott and Peruvian photographer Milagros de la Torres.

Lisa Young’s description of Searles’ work Vixen (fig. 42) particularly resonated with me. Young explains that Searles works with

sourced, reinterpreted, and sometimes gifted garments. The base garment for Vixen is one such gift, given to Searles in the

1960s when she was nursing at Heathcote Hospital. Searles reinterpreted the fox fur stole into Vixen, the name for a female fox,

but has chosen to turn it inside out exposing the underbelly of her beast. The original pocket has been added to with pink

rosettes made from satin blanket edging, reminiscent of a mother’s distended feeding nipples. The reinterpretation of the stole

has evoked a nurturing tone, as if you could snuggle into it for warmth and protection.51

Piggott’s 1996-7 work La somnambule (the sleepwalker) (fig. 43) consists of two silk nightdresses fashioned on 19th century

French examples found at a flea market in Paris52. The first nightdress is unravelling from the waist down and the other has

elongated sleeves and is stitched all over with eyehooks. The ‘bodies’ are seemingly suspended in mid air, floating and wafting

as in a dream. The work evokes a sense of presence through absence, of consciousness and unconsciousness, and the shift

from one state to another.

51 Lisa Young and Nalda Searles, Nalda Searles: Drifting in My Own Land: an Art on the Move Education Resource for Teachers and Students, Art on the Move, Osborne Park, 2009. 52 Rosslynd Piggott, ‘La somnambule’, Gallery of New South Wales [webpage], 2003 <http://m.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/417.2003.a-c/> accessed 22 August 2011.

65

De la Torres has crafted her images with great care, using a simple coat hanger for presentation and diffused natural lighting,

creating a documentary series of seemingly unremarkable clothing. The secret of de la Torres’ photographs is only revealed by

the title of the work, – Bulletproof (fig. 44). Each image is of a finely crafted, boutique purchased item of bulletproof clothing.

These deceptively simple wardrobes of men and women’s clothing are the ultimate in protective garments.

Searles, N., Vixen, 2008, in Lisa Young and Nalda

Searles Nalda Searles: Drifting in My Own Land : an

Art on the Move Education Resource for Teachers

and Students (Osborne Park Western Australia: Art

on the Move, 2009), pg. 10.

http://m.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/4

17.2003.a-c/

http://www.artealdia.com/International/Contents

/News/Tania_Candiani_Milagros_de_la_Torre_and

_Matias_Duville

fig. 42 43 44

66

http://www.thecultureconcept.com/circle/kate-

bergin-at-mossgreen-gallery-melbourne-runcible-

spoons

http://cs.nga.gov.au/Detail.cfm?IRN=135486

http://www.bridgemanart.com/asset/366806/Engli

sh-Photographer-20th-century/Anna-Pavlova-with-

her-pet-swan-Jack-c.1905-bw-p

fig. 45 46 47

http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an23492123

fig. 48 49

67

In my search for examples of creative responses to the black swan, I soon discovered they are referenced very little in the Arts,

except as the counterpoint to the white swan, most notably in the Tchaikovsky ballet Swan Lake (fig. 49) and the 2010

Aronofsky movie Black Swan. The black swan appears most frequently in Western Australia for tourism purposes as illustrated by

the Australian National Travel Association’s 1962 Commonwealth Games campaign featuring the Douglas Annand image of a

black swan (fig. 46). The water bird is also significant to local indigenous cultures: Yelakitj Moort elders of the Swan River Valley

in South West Western Australia tell their dreamtime story of a swan turned from white to black due to his incessant vanity53. In a

rare example of the bird appearing in the visual arts, a painting by Australian Kate Bergin references Nicholas Nassim Taleb’s

book on probability in her 2009 oil on canvas, Call of the Highly Improbable (fig. 45).

Feathers in fashion design proved a more fruitful field of research. I was particularly interested in the transformative allusions

within Alexander McQueen’s oeuvre. Well known for his dramatic designs and theatrical runway shows, Mc Queen’s use of

materials was at the cutting edge of fashion design. Feathers, and birds have been a common theme throughout his work,

revived time and time again in his collections.

His dress The Horn of Plenty (fig. 50) from the autumn/winter 2009–10 collection was inspired by 1950s haute couture.

Constructed from dyed duck feathers to imply raven feathers, McQueen is able to transform the traditional harbinger of death

into a romantic symbol of love.54

53 Yelakitj Moort Nyungar Association Inc, ‘Tours’, Yelakitj Moort Nyungar [webpage], 2008 < http://www.nyungar.com.au/tours.html> accessed 10 March 2011.

54 Andrew Boulton, ‘Alexander McQueen, Savage Beauty’, The Metropolitan Museum of Art [webpage], 2011 < http://blog.metmuseum.org/alexandermcqueen/dress-horn-of-plenty/> accessed 12 May 2011.

68

http://www.oceanstylemagazine.com/alexander-mcqueen-savage-beauty-at-the-metropolitan-museum-of-art/

fig. 50

69

http://www.denverartmuseum.org/collections/a

merican-indian-art

http://www.rapinoja.com/jarviruoko.htm

http://www.imageenvision.com/photochrome/19

708-photo-of-a-mahomedan-woman-in-a-cloak-

covering-her-entire-body-mostar-herzegowina-

by-jvpd

fig. 51 52 53

http://schools.natlib.govt.nz/culture-identity-

heritage/primary-sources/gallery/m-ori-

gallery/four-m-ori-girls-and-one-young-m-ori

http://www.monster-munch.com/origami-cloak/

http://www.manchestergalleries.org/our-other-

venues/platt-hall-gallery-of-costume/the-

collection/collection-

themes/narrative.php?themeback=1&CostumeTh

eme=Clothes+for+Work&irn=137

fig. 54 55 56

70

http://www.pari-

international.com/docum

ents/designers.php?entry

_id=1311514496

Cloaks, capes, robes: these clothing articles possess transformative qualities, religious resonances or

cultural significance that I had not considered at the commencement of the project and that did not

necessarily correspond with my intentions. The mother’s Black Swan cloak I had initially visualised was

itself transformed and shifted by Google image searches that began a journey of distilling the narrative

intent of my garment. Originally planned as a long 18thC style cloak, I ultimately abandoned this in

favour of the blazer jacket, a 21stC style that I might actually wear in day-to-day life. The visualisation

process also included questions such as would I cover the whole jacket in feathers? If, not, which parts

would be covered and which parts would not, and why? Would the jacket be visible through the

feathers? If so, what colour should it be? I felt the jacket’s colour was also an important consideration. fig. 57

From an aesthetic perspective white was too stark a contrast, black blended too much with feathers, patterns were too

distracting. Grey, however, offered a neutral and subtle backdrop for the feathers and also visually linked the mother’s

garment to the children’s garments, creating a family wardrobe from the final installation of works.

71

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/beuys-felt-suit-ar00092

Joseph Beuys also offers a precedent in the visual arts for the use of grey

to suggest shamanistic transformation and healing, having regularly used

grey felt in works dealing with the magical, the protective and totemic

connectedness to the animal. Beuys says of Felt Suit (fig. 58) his intention

extended beyond the material to encompass the “spiritual warmth or the

beginning of an evolution”.55

fig. 58

55 Joseph Beuys, Felt Suit [image], (2009) <http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/beuys-felt-suit-ar00092> accessed 22 October 2012.

72

Transformation (the Animal Wife)

The suit jacket that was decided upon was my third purchase from an

opportunity shop. It is cut from grey wool, suited all my aesthetic and

conceptual requirements, and was a perfect fit.

plate 81

73

Once the required Department of Sustainability and Environment

Research Permit was obtained for feather collection and

possession, the search for black swan breeding grounds

commenced. Following conversations with Victor Hurley from the

Department of Sustainability and Environment and staff from

Healesville Sanctuary and Serendip Sanctuary, I made field trips to

Lake Wendouree, Lake Purrumbete Conservation Reserve and Lake

Bookar Conservation Reserve. This was a definitive point in the

project as I made three important discoveries: it was several months

plate 82 off breeding season so there had been little recent swan activity;

the locations were naturally very windy meaning very few feathers remained; and the feathers themselves were in fact grey,

not black, and only appeared black en masse. Despite initially wanting to use the black swan feathers I was forced to look at

other possibilities, such as alternative feathers from farmed birds, or purchasing black swan or white swan feathers from

commercial sources. Eventually I settled on purchasing white swan feathers dyed black from the northern hemisphere

delighting in the conceptual appositeness of using a feather which itself had been transformed from white to black for the

purpose of the work. I purchased 1250 individual feathers, which were then sorted. Each feather was graded by length and,

where necessary, the quill was trimmed or neatened. Approximately 15% were of substandard quality and were discarded: on

completion I was left with only 23 unused feathers.

74

Transformation (the Animal Wife) work in progress

plate 83 84

plate 85 86

75

plate 87 88 89

Each feather was hand stitched onto the jacket using a double-looped running stitch, beginning at the bottom of the

garment, working up toward the shoulder and finally finishing off with the collar. After a lengthy sewing session my hands would

often be stained black, as though my skin was being impregnated with the essence of black swan. The sewing took in excess

of 220 hours to complete and although the process was, in equal parts, meditative and frustrating, the final product gave me

a sense of overwhelming fulfilment and satisfaction – again, not unlike my experience of raising children.

76

plate 90 91 92

plate 93 94

77

plate 95 96

The logistics of examination and exhibition require that the jacket be presented as an empty shell without human presence,

however once worn on the human body it vibrates with meaning and agency, human movements creating avian wings and

hackles. It is no longer a suit jacket but rather a possibility for transformation.

78


2012, repurposed wool jacket, feathers, cotton, dimensions variable.

plate 97

79

Considerations for presentation.

Presentation of the talisman works has been an

important component of their creation; trialing

alternative spatial narratives enabled me to

refine the relationship between the works. I

tested the work hung side by side at adult

eyeline, hung at child neck height, hung with a

mirror as the mother proxy at varying heights

and distances from each other. I finally settled

on a configuration to create a ‘family portrait’

of mother and children (plate 98).

plate 98

80

plate 99 100

I was granted access to the RMIT School of Art Gallery over the

summer break on the 16th and 17th of January, 2013. This gave me the

time to experiment with possible presentation options for the

wardrobe works. I trialled clustering the works in various combinations

and sequences. All of these were hung from a single hook on a coat

hanger, however I have continued to reconsider these devices and

have sourced other possible hanging props.

plate 101

81

For the presentation of Transformation (the Animal Wife) I have been experimenting with making fake wallpaper. Loaded with

domestic references, the paper is intended to ground the work in a feminine space, albeit a counterfeit space, for disguising

‘counterfeit’ motherhood.

I am using a black and white scan and printout of an opulent reproduction French wallpaper that I found at a second-hand

store. The tone of the paper is lightened and knocked back in intensity to avoid overpowering the jacket. This has been done

by rubbing white pastels into the surface (fig. 104), and overprinting with a semi translucent block printed wood grain.

Experiments with hanging the paper have included a paste-up solution of flour, water and sugar (fig. 105), and pinning to the

wall (fig. 103). Other considerations have been size and shape of the wallpapered area, line of vision as the viewer enters the

gallery space, whether a mirror should be included and possible hanging solutions for the jacket itself.

82

plate 102 103 104

plate 105 106

83

So that the audience can have a more holistic understanding of Transformation (the Animal Wife), I have been experimenting

with video documentation of the jacket, capturing footage of the jacket at its greatest potency, i.e. when activated by the

moving body. The intention is to include the video documentation in the exhibition space.

plate 107

84

DOCUMENTATION OF EXAMINATION PRESENTATION

85

The dominant view on entering the gallery space. The

Black Swan jacket is not visible on entry but its

reflection in the mirror alludes to the work hidden

behind the column.

plate 108

86

On approach the jacket emerges

from behind the column, anchored

in a domestic space provided by

the wallpaper prints and the mirror.

The examiners were asked to put

the jacket on in order to activate its

performative and transformative

aspect, an integral part of the

viewing experience.

plate 109

87


2012, repurposed wool jacket, feathers, cotton, dimensions variable.

plate 110 111

88

plate 112

89

plate 113

90

The second dominant wall displayed the wardrobe of children’s clothes. The pants and stockings were pinned to the wall, the

jacket was displayed on a mannequin, the dress and caplet each hung on a custom designed and made steel armature.

plate 114

91

plate 115

The girl’s wardrobe.

92

Foxing (daywear for sly and cunning)

2012, repurposed school trousers, zip, cotton, eyelet, foxtail, dimensions variable.

plate 116 117

93

PROTECTIVE COAT (a boy in echidna’s clothing)

2012, repurposed wool coat, cotton, echidna quills, dimensions variable.

plate 118 119

94


2011-12, dress, quail and chicken bones, cotton, eyelashes, glass, cork, dimensions variable.

plate 120 121 122

95


2012, wool, porcelain teeth, emu feathers, button, cotton, dimensions variable.

plate 123 124

96


2012, repurposed winter tights, carp scales, cotton, dimensions variable.

plate 125 126 127

97


2011-2013, wool, metallic thread, hair, found objects, dimensions variable.

plate 128 129

The talisman neckpieces and the mirror were hung on the wall to the left of the entry. On approach the mirror’s reflection

revealed the jacket and wallpaper on the opposite wall.

98

plate 130 131

99

MATERNITY

2012, repurposed maternity bra, rose thorns, cotton, dimensions variable.

plate 132

Concealed on a plinth behind the central column, MATERNITY slowly revealed itself as the viewer moved further into the

space.

100

plate 133 134

101

plate 135

The wall to the right of entry was darkened for the purpose of projecting a video showing the jacket being activated through

being worn. Also on this wall was a small photographic self portrait wearing the Black Swan jacket beside The Talisman Source

Book displayed on a plinth.

102

plate 136

104

The Talisman Source Book

2011-13, digital printout/artist book, approx. 21 x 29.7 cm.

plate 137

Included was a hand-bound book covered with a grey felt that mimics the base materials used for the children’s wardrobe

and the Black Swan jacket. The Talisman Source Book is an edited collection of scanned objects of personal significance.

105

plate 138

plate 139

106

EXHIBITION HISTORY FOR ARTWORKS PRODUCED DURING THE CANDIDACY

A Woman’s Work is Never Done

A Woman’s Work is Never Done, LEAP Project Space, Mildura, Victoria, 5th – 19th March 2012.

Hugs and Kisses/Noughts and Crosses

SHIFT, Trocadero Art Space, Footscray, Victoria, October 17th – November 3rd, 2012.

Talisman for L.


Talisman for S.



A Wardrobe for S, Window Gallery, LEAP Mildura, Victoria, 12th – 18th November, 2012.





107

MATERNITY

Centenary, Stefano’s Gallery 25, Mildura, Victoria, 13th September – 2nd October, 2012.

SHIFT, Trocadero Art Space, Footscray, Victoria, 17th October – 3rd November, 2012.

TRANSFORMATION, Amplon Gardens, Gol Gol, New South Wales, 18th November, 2012.


Colour Me Crazy, Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery, Victoria, 20th September – 14th October, 2012.

Colour Me Crazy, LEAP Gallery, Mildura, Victoria, November 23rd – December 24th, 2012.

TRANSFORMATION, Amplon Gardens, Gol Gol, New South Wales, 18th November, 2012.

PUBLIC PRESENTATIONS OF RESEARCH

Artist talk on Research Project to date, presented to the Sunraysia Postnatal Depression Support Network, Mildura, Victoria, 8th

May 2012.

Deborah Banks, Merryl Whyte and Danielle Hobbs, ‘Local Artist Explores her Journey of Postnatal Depression’, Breakfast Program, (Mildura/Swan Hill, ABC Local Radio 104.3 FM, 8.50am 13 November 2012) [radio program].

Guest Speaker at An afternoon with the Girls for the Sunraysia Postnatal Depression Support Network, Amplon Gardens, Gol

Gol, New South Wales, 18th November, 2012.

108

APPENDIX

post examination exhibition invitation

109

examination presentation room sheet

DANIELLE HOBBS The Black Swan and Postnatal Depression: preventive talismans and transformative garments for ‘bad’ mothers. LIST OF WORKS WALLS LEFT TO RIGHT Talisman for L. and Talisman for S, 2011-2013, wool, metallic thread, hair, found objects, dimensions variable. With mirror, 48cm x 55cm. Foxing (daywear for sly and cunning), 2012, repurposed trousers, foxtail, zip, cotton, dimensions variable. PROTECTIVE COAT (a boy in echidna’s clothing), 2012, repurposed wool coat, cotton, echidna quills, dimensions variable. With mannequin, fox mask, t-shirt.

The Wish Dress (being Dorothy), 2012, repurposed dress, quail and chicken bones, eyelashes, cotton, glass, cork, dimensions variable. With armature. Fight or Flight (a reversible caplet for shifting psychological states), 2012, wool, porcelain teeth, cotton, emu feathers, button, dimensions variable. With armature. Little Mermaid Legs (anti-drowning tights), 2012, repurposed winter tights, carp scales, cotton, dimensions variable. Transformation (the Animal Wife), repurposed wool jacket, feathers, cotton, dimensions variable. With mannequin, inkjet print wallpaper, mirror. Transformation (the Animal Wife), 2013, video still. Transformation (the Animal Wife), 2013, inkjet print (photograph Jason Modica).

110

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES

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Kaplan, Meryle Mahrer, Mothers' Images of Motherhood: Case Studies of Twelve Mothers, Routledge, London, 1992. Kelly, Mary, Post-Partum Document, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1999. Kristeva, Julia and Moi, Toril, The Kristeva Reader, Columbia University Press, West Sussex, 1986. Ladd-Taylor, Molly and Umansky, Lauri, "Bad" Mothers: The Politics of Blame in Twentieth-Century America, University Press, New York, 1998. Liss, Andrea, Feminist Art and the Maternal, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 2009. Maushart, Susan, Mask of Motherhood: How Becoming a Mother Changes Our Lives and Why We Never Talk About It, Penguin Books, New York, 2000. Nicholson, Joyce, The Heartache of Motherhood, Penguin Books, New York, 1983. Nicolson, Paula, Postnatal Depression: Facing the Paradox of Loss, Happiness and Motherhood, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester, 2001. Panter, Barry and Virshup, B. (eds.), Creativity & Madness: Psychological Studies of Art and Artists, A I M E D, Los Angeles, 1995. Power, Rachel, The Divided Heart: Art and Motherhood, Red Dog, Fitzroy, 2008. Price, A. Lindsay, Swans of the World: In Nature, History, Myth and Art, Council Oak Publishing Company Inc., Tulsa, 1994. Rich, Adrienne, Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution, W. W. Norton & Company, New York, 1976. Royle, Nicholas, The Uncanny, Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2003. Sellers, Susan, Myth and Fairy Tale in Contemporary Women's Fiction, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2001. Simon, Joan and Hamilton, Ann, Ann Hamilton: An Inventory of Objects, Gregory R. Miller & Co., New York, 2006. Thurer, Shari, The Myths of Motherhood: How Culture Reinvents the Good Mother, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1994. Turcotte, Gerry, ‘Australian Gothic’, in Marie Mulvey-Roberts (ed.), The Handbook to Gothic Literature, Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1998 Walker, Barbara G., The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, HarperCollins Publishers, New York,, 1983.

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Walker Bynum, Caroline, Metamorphosis and Identity, Zone Books, 2005. Warner, Judith, Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety, Riverhead Books, New York, 2005. Warner, Marina, Managing Monsters: Six Myths of our Time: the 1994 Reith lectures, Vintage, London, 1994. Warner, Marina, Fantastic Metamorphoses, Other Worlds: Ways of Telling the Self, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2002. Warner, Marina, No Go the Bogeyman: Scaring, Lulling and Making Mock, Chatto & Windus, London, 1998. Warner, Marina, Phantasmagoria, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2006. Warner, Marina and Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe, World of Myths, University of Texas Press, Austin, 2004. Warner, M and Herxheimer, S, Wonder Tales, Chatto & Windus, London, 1994. Weitman, Wendy, Kiki Smith: Prints, Books, and Things, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2003. Winnicott, Donald W., The Child, the Family, and the Outside World, Penguin Books, London, 1991. Xeros-Constantinides, Sophia, et al., Bedlam: The Bitter-Sweet Embrace of Motherhood, Template Publishing, Melbourne, 2010.

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Online: Ashliman, D.L., 'Folktales of Aarne-Thompson type 402 and related stories', Animal Brides [webpage], (2009) <http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0402.html>, accessed 17 May 2011. Ferrier, Lindsay, ‘The art of imperfection’, Suburban Turmoil [webpage], (2011) < http://suburbanturmoil.com/>, accessed 10 April 2011. Stadtman Tucker, Judith, ‘Resources and reporting for mothers and others who think about social change’ The Mothers Movement Online [webpage] (2009) <http://www.mothersmovement.org/index.htm>, accessed 10 April 2011. Windling, Terri ‘Endicott Redux: Kiki Smith: A Gathering’, Endicott Studio [webpage], (2007) <http://endicottstudio.typepad.com/endicott_redux/2007/01/kiki_smith/>, accessed 25 June 2011. Beyondblue ‘What is Postnatal Depression?’, Beyondblue [webpage], (2011) <http://www.beyondblue.org.au/index.aspx?link_id=94>, accessed 05 May 2011. A life less digital ‘No, I would not like e-fries with that …’ A life less digital [webpage], (2011) <http://alifelessdigital.wordpress.com/>, accessed 17 May 2011. Reach Out ‘What is self-talk?’ REACHOUT.COM [webpage], (2011) <http://au.reachout.com/find/articles/introducing-self-talk accessed 24>, 01 April 2011. Windling, Terri 'Married to Magic: Animal Brides and Bridegrooms in Folklore and Fantasy', Endicott Studio [webpage], (2011) <http://www.endicott-studio.com/rdrm/rrMarriedToMagic.html>, accessed 17 May 2011. Windling, Terri 'Shape Shifters: art inspired by Animal-Human Transformation Myths', Endicott Studio [webpage], (2011) <http://www.endicott-studio.com/gal/gshifters.html>, accessed 17 May 2011. Creighton, Richard ‘Azaria Chantel Loren Chamberlain’, Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton [webpage], (2011) <http://www.lindychamberlain.com/content/home>, accessed 20 July 2011. Driscoll, Margarette ‘Kate McCann reveals thoughts of suicide over Madeleine's disappearance’, News Limited [webpage], (2011) <http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/kate-mccann-reveals-thoughts-of-suicide-over-madeleines-disappearance/story-e6frg6so-1226051975341>, accessed 20 July 2011. Dictionary.com, ‘motherhood’, dictionary.com [webpage], (2011) <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/motherhood>, accessed 24 April 2011.

115

Dorment, Richard 'Louise Bourgeois invented confessional art', Telegraph Media Group Limited [webpage], (2011) <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/7794168/Louise-Bourgeois-invented-confessional-art.html>, accessed 01 June, 2011. Karpf, Anne ‘There's no such thing as a perfect mother – and that's half the fun’, The Independent [webpage], (2008) <http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/anne-karpf-theres-no-such-thing-as-a-perfect-mother-ndash-and-thats-half-the-fun-790218.html>, accessed 30 August 2011. Floor Talk: Gower, Elisabeth ‘Beyond the everyday: The art of Elizabeth Gower 1974 – 2002’, Mildura Arts Centre, 2003 Podcast: Mills, Jennifer ‘Jennifer Mills Artist Talk’ RMIT University, Art, Design, Media, 2010 retrieved 31 May 2011, iTunes Store Film: Sylvia, DVD recording, Focus Features, London, 2003. The Hours, DVD recording, Paramount Pictures, Los Angeles, 2002. Frida, DVD recording, Miramax Films, New York, 2002.

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Image Sources: Figure 1 Nyström, J., De tre valkyriorna vid Ulvsjön, 2010, [image] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Valkyries_with_swan_skins.jpg> accessed 25 April 2011. Figure 2 Bouguereau, W.A., Virgin and Child, 1888, [image] <http://www.artgallery.sa.gov.au/agsa/home/Collection/detail.jsp?ecatKey=733> accessed 27 may 2009. Figure 3 Vigee Le Brun, L., Madame Vigee Lebrun and her daughter, Jeanne Lucie Louise, 1789, [image] <http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/louise-elisabeth-vigee-le-brun/madame-vigee-lebrun-and-her-daughter-jeanne-lucie-louise-1789> accessed 17 August 2011. Figure 4 Harpic Power Plus, 2006, [video] <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgsEJ-I0VB8> accessed 17 August 2011. Figure 5 AScandalouslyFabulousLife, How Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt Go Against the ‘Norm’, 2012, [image] <http://www.ascandalouslyfabulouslife.com/ascandalouslyfabulouslife/how-angelina-jolie-brad-pitt-go-against-the-norm.html> accessed 17 August 2012). Figure 6 Anonymous, Swan Lake, ?, [image] <http://www.worldart.com.au/swan-lake/> accessed 12 December 2012. Figure 7 Fanpop Inc., White Swan, 2010, [image] http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/black-swan/images/20004601/title/new-black-swan-still-photo> accessed 22 January 2013. Figure 8 Flix 66, Black Swan, 2010, [image] <http://www.flix66.com/2011/03/28/win-a-copy-of-black-swan-on-dvd-starring-academy-award-winner-natalie-portman/> accessed 22 January 2013. Figure 9 Fubiz, Black Swan Poster, 2010, [image], <http://www.fubiz.net/2010/12/13/black-swan-posters/> accessed 15 July 2012.

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Figure 10 Penguin Books, The Black Swan: the impact of the highly improbable, 2008 edition, [image] <http://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Swan-Impact-Highly-Improbable/dp/0141034599> accessed 13 October 2011. Figure 11 CBS News, Zahra Clare Baker: Stepmom, Elisa Baker, Held on Charge Related to Missing N.C. girl, 2010, [image] <http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20019373-504083.html> accessed 17 August 2011. Figure 12 Herald Sun, Lindy with her daughter Azaria in 1980, 1980, [image] <http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/lindy-chamberlain-creighton-delighted-saga-is-over-after-ruling-that-a-dingo-killed-azaria/story-fnat7dag-1226391525114> accessed 22 January 2013. Figure 13 News.com.au, Gerry and Kate McCann have spoken of their fears of never finding their missing daughter Madeleine, 2010, [image] <http://www.news.com.au/world-old/we-fear-the-hunt-for-maddie-is-ending-say-kate-and-gerr-mccann/story-e6frfkyi-1225947547847> accessed 22 January 2013. Figure 14 Bourgeois, L., Femme Maison series 1945-47, [image] <http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/oct/07/louise.bourgeois> accessed 01 June 2011. Figure 15 Bourgeois, L., Untitled 1943, in Thomas Kellein ‘Louise Bourgeois: la famille’ (Verlag der Buchhandlung Walter König, Köln, 2006), p. 75. Figure 16 Mann, S., Emmett’s Bloody Nose 1985, in ‘Sally Mann: Immediate Family’ (Aperture Foundation Inc., New York, 1992), p. 58. Figure 17 Blackmon, J., Candy, 2007 [image] <http://www.julieblackmon.com/Portfolio.cfm?nK=312> accessed 09 November 2012. Figure 18 Noble, A., Ruby’s Room #10, 2000 [image] <http://www.aucklandartgallery.com/the-collection/browse-artists/2132/anne-noble> accessed 09 November 2012. Figure 19 Wilkinson, T., M/Other #7, 2009, in Dr. D. Barker, M/Other Love: the first relationship and the photography of Toni Wilkinson (Artlink Vol 29, no 3), pg. 54.

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Figure 20 Smith, K, Lying with the Wolf, 2001, [image] < http://www.pbs.org/art21/slideshow/popup.php?slide=254> accessed 29 May 2011. Figure 21 Smith, K, Wearing the Skin, 2001, [image] < http://www.dailyartfixx.com/2011/01/18/kiki-smith-sculpture/> accessed 29 May 2011. Figure 22 Smith, K, Rapture, 2001, [image] <http://www.ucl.ac.uk/english/graduate/issue/2/sarah.htm> accessed 29 May 2011. Figure 23 Mills, J., Hello there (hell here) II, 2008, [image] <http://www.darrenknightgallery.com/artists/mills/ColourMeBlack2009/HelloHellHereI.htm> accessed 06 November 2012. Figure 24 Mills, J., Visual distraction, 2008, [image] <http://www.darrenknightgallery.com/artists/mills/ColourMeBlack2009/VisualDistraction.htm> accessed 06 November 2012. Figure 25 Eye Italia, Hand Ex-Votos, 2013, [image] <http://www.eyeitalia.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=82_85&products_id=411#.UP4H4uiCXCI> accessed 08 November 2012. Figure 26 La Mariposa Gallery, 20 vintage Milagros, 2012, [image] <http://www.lamariposagallery.com/popup_image.php/pID/358?osCsid=28b0e0832991d546fb53cadbeb08ac4c> accessed 08 November 2012. Figure 27 Eleanor Brown Boutique, Flaming Heart Milagros, 2013, [image] <http://eleanorbrownboutique.com/item_255/Gold-Tin-Sacred-Heart-Milagro.htm> accessed 08 November 2012. Figure 28 Black as Jet, Whitby Jet locket, 2013, [image] <http://www.blackasjet.co.uk/> accessed 22 January, 2013.

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Figure 29 Eleanor Brown Boutique, Gold Eye Mask Milagros, 2012, [online photograph], <http://eleanorbrownboutique.com/item_339/Large-Gold-Eye-Mask-Milagro-with-Scroll-and-Flower-Motif.htm> accessed 08 November 2012. Figure 30 Anonymous, Portrait miniature on ivory of Officer of the 1st Royal Dragoons Richard Crosse Circa 1770, 1770, [image] <http://imageevent.com/bluboi/fine> accessed 22 January 2013. Figure 31 Russek, J., Doll Arm for Milagros, 2013, [image] <http://www.photographydealers.com/artists/janet-russek/dolls/> accessed 22 January 2013. Figure 32 The Jewellery Loop, Gold mourning brooch with seed pearls containing hair, 2013, [image] <http://www.thejewelleryloop.com/remember-me/> accessed 22 January 2013. Figure 33 Klein, D., Campylotes Desgonsini Moth Mask, 2007, [image] <http://www.deborahklein.net/Angels/index.html> accessed 07 November 2012. Figure 34 Batorowicz, B., Little Fox with Fairytales, 2012, [image] <http://www.art-almanac.com.au/2012/09/beata-batorowicz-tales-within-historical-spaces/> accessed 07 November 2012. Figure 35 Mills, J., batself, 2009, [image] <http://www.darrenknightgallery.com/artists/mills/2011/index.php> accessed 07 November 2012. Figure 36 Horn, R., The Feathered Prison Fan, 1978, [image] <http://www.rebecca-horn.de/pages/biography.html> accessed 07 November 2012. Figure 37 McDonald, M., The Weeping Dress, 2011, [image] <http://marthalmcdonald.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/the-weeping-dress.html> accessed 07 November 2012.

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Figure 38 Cave, N., Soundsuit, 2008, [image] <http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2010/february/hair-and-everywhere> accessed 07 November 2012. Figure 39 Coates, M., Journey To A Lower World, 2004, [image] <http://www.artvehicle.com/events/94> accessed 07 November 2012. Figure 40 Dore, G., Rime of the Ancient Mariner, 1876, [image] <http://www.artsycraftsy.com/dore_mariner.html> accessed 08 March 2013. Figure 41 Oppenheim, M., Object (Breakfast in Fur), 1936, [image] <http://weatheredheights.blogspot.com.au/2010_10_01_archive.html> accessed 01 February 2013. Figure 42 Searles, N., Vixen, 2008, in Lisa Young and Nalda Searles Nalda Searles: Drifting in My Own Land : an Art on the Move Education Resource for Teachers and Students (Osborne Park Western Australia: Art on the Move, 2009), pg. 10. Figure 43 Piggott, R., La somnambule, 1997, [image] <http://m.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/417.2003.a-c/> accessed 22 August 2011. Figure 44 De la Torres, M., Bullet Proof, 2008, [image] <www.artealdia.com/International/Contents/News/Tania_Candiani_Milagros_de_la_Torre_and_Matias_Duville> accessed 22 July 2012. Figure 45 Bergin, K., Call of the Highly Improbable, 2009 [image] <http://www.thecultureconcept.com/circle/kate-bergin-at-mossgreen-gallery-melbourne-runcible-spoons> accessed 22 July 2011. Figure 46 Annand, D., Australia. Commonwealth Games, Perth, Nov. 22 - Dec 1, 1962, 1962, [image] <http://cs.nga.gov.au/Detail.cfm?IRN=135486> accessed 22 July 2011. Figure 47 Anonymous, Anna Pavlova with Jack – a favourite swan, 1905, [image] <http://www.bridgemanart.com/asset/366806/English-Photographer-20th-century/Anna-Pavlova-with-her-pet-swan-Jack-c.1905-bw-p> accessed 22 July 2011.

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Figure 48 Hobbs, D., Black Swan on the Murray River, Mildura, 2009. Figure 49 McMurdo, D., Australian Ballet performance of Swan Lake, swans, March, 1991, 1991, [image] <http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an23492123> accessed 22 July 2011. Figure 50 McQueen, A., Dress of black duck feathers, Horn of Plenty, 2009-2010, [image] <http://www.oceanstylemagazine.com/alexander-mcqueen-savage-beauty-at-the-metropolitan-museum-of-art/> accessed 17 August 2011. Figure 51 Unknown Wailaki Artist, Native American Navajo Condor feather cloak, late 1800’s, [image] <http://www.denverartmuseum.org/collections/american-indian-art> accessed 22 July 2011. Figure 52 Rapinoya, A., The Coat of Child Earth, 2006, [image] <http://www.rapinoja.com/jarviruoko.htm> accessed 27 February 2012. Figure 53 Image Envision, Mahomedan woman in traditional dress, a dark cloak covering her entire body, Mostar, Herzegovina, Austro-Hungary, c 1890-1900., 2010, [image] <http://www.imageenvision.com/photochrome/19708-photo-of-a-mahomedan-woman-in-a-cloak-covering-her-entire-body-mostar-herzegowina-by-jvpd> accessed 17 August 2011. Figure 54 Merrett, J., Four Māori girls and one young Māori man, National Library of New Zealand, 2013, [image] <http://schools.natlib.govt.nz/culture-identity-heritage/primary-sources/gallery/m-ori-gallery/four-m-ori-girls-and-one-young-m-ori> accessed 17 August 2011. Figure 55 Verschueren, A., Origami Cloak, 2009, [image] <http://www.monster-munch.com/origami-cloak/> accessed 17 August 2011. Figure 56 Mancester Art Gallery, Clothes for Work, 2009, [image] <http://www.manchestergalleries.org/our-other-venues/platt-hall-gallery-of-costume/the-collection/collection-themes/narrative.php?themeback=1&CostumeTheme=Clothes+for+Work&irn=137> accessed 17 August 2011.

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Figure 57 Renault, Sylvain, Victorian Woman, 2011, [image] <http://www.pari-international.com/documents/designers.php?entry_id=1311514496> accessed 17 August 2011. Figure 58 Beuys, J., Felt Suit, 1970, [image] <http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/beuys-felt-suit-ar00092> accessed 10 October 2012.

A

ANNEXURE

A selection of images and artists who have been influential in my research and practice.

B

Louise Bourgeois The Bad Mother, 2004, pen on paper

T Kellein, L Bourgeois ‘Louise Bourgeois: la famille’ Verlag der Buchhandlung Walter König, Köln, 2006.

The Good Mother, 2003, ink on paper


Post Partum Depression of the Mother, 1999, pen on paper


Arch of Hysteria, 1993, polished bronze, 83.8 x 101.6 x 58.4 cm


Cell VII, 1998, mixed mediums (interior view), size variable

http://www.woodstreetgalleries.org/past/gaurantee.html

The Woven Child (detail), 2002, fabric, wood, glass, and steel, 70 x 35 x 21 inches (fabric element); 70 x 35 x 21 inches (vitrine)

http://www.worcesterart.org/Exhibitions/Past/louise_bourgeois.html

Kiki Smith Born, 2002, lithograph.

http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/.../smith.php

Jazmina Cininas From the 'The Girlie Werewolf Project', 2002, type C photograph.

http://www.abc.net.au/arts/visual/stories/s613012.htm

Paul Woodroffe Little Red Riding Hood illustration for Amy Steedman’s Nursery Tales, London: TC & EC Jack, n.d.

http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/illustrations/ridinghood/woodroffered.html

C

Toni Wilkinson m/other #5, 2009, giclee print

http://www.johnstongallery.com.au/Toni Wilkinson/wilkinsonmother5.html

m/other #6, 2009, giclee print

http://www.johnstongallery.com.au/Toni Wilkinson/wilkinsonmother6.html

Kate Scardifield Readyflayed II, 2006, fabric, pins, paper, dimensions variable.

http://www.katescardifield.com/art.php?y=2007

Martha McDonald The Weeping Dress, 2011, photograph.

http://marthalmcdonald.blogspot.com.au/

The Weeping Dress, 2011, performance.

http://craftvic.org.au/whats-on/exhibitions/martha-mcdonald-the-weeping-dress

The Weeping Dress, 2011, crepe paper, documentation of performance.

http://craftvic.org.au/whats-on/exhibitions/martha-mcdonald-the-weeping-dress

Deborah Klein Choreutis periploca Moth Mask, 2009, oil on canvas

http://www.deborahklein.net/Angels/index.html

Helen Pynor Exhale, 2005, knitted human hair, dimensions variable.

http://www.helenpynor.com/exhale.htm

Exhale, 2005, knitted human hair, dimensions variable.

http://www.helenpynor.com/exhale.htm

D

Jennifer Mills Can’t Be Seen, 2008, watercolour ink and oil pastel, 109 x 77 cm

http://www.darrenknightgallery.com/artists/mills/ColourMeBlack2009/index.php

Suspicion, 2009, watercolour, ink and oil pastel on paper, 99 x 60 cm

http://www.darrenknightgallery.com/artists/group shows/groupshows2010/index.php

Julie Goodwin Diary, 2000, Oil pastel and coloured pencil on paper, 21 x 14.8 cm each

http://inkblotreview.blogspot.com.au/2011/03/picturing-mother-and-child.html

Konrad Winkler Julie, Charlotte and Isabella, 2000, silver gelatin print

http://www.mga.org.au/event/view/event/84

Julie and Isabella, 2000, silver gelatin print

http://inkblotreview.blogspot.com.au/2011/03/picturing-mother-and-child.html

Rosslynd Piggott La somnambule (The sleepwalker), 1996-1997, fabric,dimensions variable.

http://m.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/417.2003.a-c/

Mella Jaarsma Hi Inlander (Hello native-born) 1998-99, Installation comprising treated skins (fish, chicken, frog, kangaroo)

http://svc034.wic029p.serverweb.com/lostandfound/artworks/jaarsma.htm

Hi inlander (Hello native-born) 1998-99, Installation comprising treated skins (fish, chicken, frog, kangaroo)

http://visualarts.qld.gov.au/apt3/artists/artist_bios/mella_jaarsma_a.htm

Samuel White Sweet Portrait of unidentified Aboriginal woman wearing a possum skin cloak, carrying a child on her back, South Australia, ca. 1870s?

http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn3083075

E

Unknown Maori woman with tagged cloak, 1860-1879

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Femme_Maori_-_Maori_woman_with_tagged_cloak_1998-23062-173.jpg

Beata Batorowicz Daughter Hood, 2004, dyed leather, fox skin

http://www.beatabatorowicz.com/little-red.html

Tales Within Historical Spaces (Detail) 2011 Acrylic on platinum/palladium print 51 x 41 cm

http://www.beatabatorowicz.com/projects.html

Alexander McQueen Winged Dress from La Dame Bleue Spring 2008

http://www.ilikeiwishiheart.com/?tag=alexander-mcqueen

Ostrich Feather and Silk Dress from The Ice Queen and Her Court Spring 2011

http://www.glamour.com/fashion/blogs/slaves-to-fashion/2010/10/alexander-mcqueen-spring-2011.html

Jimena Rios Untitled (necklace), sterling silver, dyed jade, mother pearl

http://www.piecesofeight.com.au/artists/rios3.html

Julia Deville mechanical wing brooch, kingfisher wing, sterling silver

http://juliadeville.com/

Lauren Simeoni Woodland, 2010, beads, artificial plant, silver

http://www.piecesofeight.com.au/events/unnatural_naturally3.html

Terhi Heino Shirt, 2011, kalanevä (fish), acrylic, oil paint, glue

http://www.saatchionline.com/terhiheino

F

Indigenous jewellery

From the Indigenous Collection at the South Australian Museum

Photograph by Danielle Hobbs







G

Alison Couston Magical Golland, 1999–2000, mixed media, 79 x 76 cm

http://www.hht.net.au/discover/highlights/higlights/art_at_the_properties/art_at_the_properties2/sc

ulpture2/alison_clouston3

Magical Golland, 1999–2000, mixed media, 62 x 56cm

http://www.hht.net.au/discover/highlights/higlights/art_at_the_properties/art_at_the_properties2/sc

ulpture2/alison_clouston3

Nalda Searles Hybrid Stole for a Wayward Woman, 2008, animal fur, mallee leaves, silk thread, 58 x 28 x 16 cm

http://mosmanartgallery.org.au/events/nalda-searles-entwined-in-textiles

Dorothy's Wild Flowers, 1998-2008, woollen overcoat, stones, thread, iron stand, 164 x 600 x 8 cm

http://mosmanartgallery.org.au/exhibitions/nalda-searles-drifting-in-my-own-land

Kate MccGwire Gag, 2009, mixed media with crow feathers, in antique museum cabinet, 77 x 60 x 60 cm

http://bruisebruiseviolet.blogspot.com.au/2011/04/kate-mccgwire.html

Evacuate, 2010, game bird feathers

http://www.meadowarts.org/page.php?Plv=3&P1=&P2=21&P3=59

Clement Pierre Marillier Donkeyskin, illustration.

http://thefairytales.blog.com/2011/11/22/donkeyskin/

Ex-votos of silver, gilt bronze and crystals from Southern France, late 19th c.

http://katie-d-i-d.blogspot.com.au/2009/02/how-do-you-know.html

H

John Gould Black Swan (Cygnus Atratus) Lithograph from 'Birds of Australia' 1840-1848

http://www.artrecord.com/index.cfm/artist/6443-gould-john/medium/3-prints-and-graphics/?page=2

Danielle Hobbs

Black Swan (Cygnus atratus) on the Murray River at Mildura, Victoria

Scarlette Sunday from the series Matryoshka, 2009, giclee print

Annette Messenger The Boarders, 1971-72

http://gollybard.blogspot.com/2009_02_01_archive.html

Jan Steen The Bean Feast, 1668, Oil on canvas, 80 x 105 cm

http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/s/steen/page2/index.html

Julie Blackmon Play Group, Pigment Ink Print, 22x22"


I

Gum, Pigment Ink Print, 22x22"


Jane Burton motherland #11, 2008, Type C photograph, 75 x 75 cm

http://www.janeburton.com.au/_photographs/2008motherland/motherland11.htm

Emmet Gowin Nancy, Danville, Virginia, 1969, silver gelatin print

http://www.masters-of-photography.com/G/gowin/gowin_twist_full.html

Sally Mann

Eva, from What Remains,

http://www.artsjournal.com/man/2006/01/what_remains_part_ii.html

Fallen Child, 1989, silver gelatin print, 47.6 x 58.4 cm

http://www.kochgallery.com/images/artists/contemporary/Mann/Fallen_Child.jpg

Louise Weaver Golden Oriole, 2000, Taxidermied bird, sequins, glass beads, wood, 45 x 20 x 25cm

http://www.darrenknightgallery.com/artists/weaver/otherwork/04.htm

Frida Kahlo Thinking About Death, 1943, oil on canvas

Prignitz-Poda, H. (2003) Frida Kahlo: The Painter and Her Work, Berlin, Schirmer/Mosel

The Two Fridas, 1939, oil on canvas.

Prignitz-Poda, H. (2003) Frida Kahlo: The Painter and Her Work, Berlin, Schirmer/Mosel

Margaret Sartor Eliza at home, Durham, NC, 2004, silver gelatin print

http://library.duke.edu/exhibits/margaretsartor/11-Eliza_at_home_2004.jpg/exhibit_item_view.html%3Fdisplay=small.html

the black swan and postnatal depression - rmit...

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