Untitled (The Simulator)
Untitled (Woman Pains)
Untitled (Small Inconveniences)
Untitled (Consumerist Pregnancy Reports)
How can women be free if they must carry the burden of reproductive labor?
-- Shulamith Firestone, The Dialectic of Sex (1970)
This set of works investigate our cultural relationship to technologies that seek to engineer social equality- in this case, the technologization of reproduction. It has been argued that biological differences in reproductive roles is one of the central challenges that lead to gender inequality. Does delegating pregnancy to a machine liberate women and aid in the quest for equality? Or is it systemic policy, political, societal, and cultural norms that need re-innovating? Does equality come from making everyone the same, or does it arise from recognizing inherent differences?
These questions were explored through the ways consumer culture problematizes pregnancy. Centered around experiences that are typically considered “inconvenient”, these speculative products investigate our cultural relationship to pregnancy as mediated by artefacts, with a focus on cosmetic aids such as anti-stretch mark creams, anti-darkening serums, belly hiding corsets, belly masks, mood regulators, etc.
This installation reifies experiential aspects of pregnancy into consumer oriented products, with labels selling these experiences as moments of growth an adaptation into motherhood. This work reflects on the plethora of contradictory messages women receive on the journey to motherhood.
I wrote an article for this piece for Biodesigned, which can be read here.
Consumerist Pregnancy ReportsTM
A set of ritual devices and consumable products made to simulate the biological experience of pregnancy. Centered around experiences typically considered “inconvenient”, these speculative products investigate our cultural relationship to pregnancy as mediated by artifacts.
Untitled (small inconveniences)
A garment that simulates incontinence. This garment is part of a series that allows persons of any gender to experience the biological symptoms of pregnancy at will, to cultivate both empathy and potential new ways of embodied understanding.
Untitled (woman pains)
A garment that simulates labor pains through an array of electrodes. Exploring the convoluted medical and cultural history of pain management during birth, and the false dichotomies of the term “natural” birth.
medium
Small Inconveniences: silk, nylon, silicone, elastic bands
Woman Pains: silk, nylon, silicone, custom electronics
Consumerist Pregnancy ReportsTM: mixed media containing various vials, pills, creams and garments.
dimensions
Small Inconveniences Height: 43 cm Width: 33 cm Thickness: 5cm
Woman Pains: Height: 35cm Width: 40 cm Thickness: 40 cm
The Consumer Pregnancy ReportsTM: installation, dimensions variable
year
2019
installation series
Consumerist Pregnancy Reports TM
exhibitions
MU Hybrid Arthouse
Festival of the Impossible, by Adobe
tags
biopolitics, pregnancy, simulation, feminism, technoscience
photo credits
Ani Liu
production credits
Project sponsored by Adobe’s Festival of the Impossible.
Garment fabrication production with Randi Shandroski.