Untitled (Feeding Through Space and Time)
Every month, the artist creates approximately 5.85 gallons of breast milk with her body, which is the volume shown in circulation. A meditation on invisible labor related to reproduction and care work, the installation was created as a reflection on the experience of pumping breast milk in the work place.
The breastpump, first patented in 1854, presents knotty potentials, both liberating and limiting. Its presence allows for the disentanglement of body and milk, which can simultaneously empower choice and obligate postpartum bodies back into the labor force with the assumption that all spectrums of society can balance the demands of paid work and care work.
Programmed to the rhythm of the artist’s own breast pump, the work also reflects the artist’s intimate experiences with this machine. Shortly after giving birth, the visual and sensory cues of a baby's suckle causes milk to be ejected from the breasts in a process called letdown. Over the course of pumping for months, the mechanical rhythmic sound of the pump began superseding the biological cues. Over time, the mechanical sound of the pump began triggering the letdown reflex from the artist’s body. Blurring boundaries between flesh and machine, unexpected intimacy is explored between the body, the pump, and the nourishment of the child.
Medium:
Food grade tubing, liquid pump, air pump, microcontroller, synthetic milk
Special thanks to:
Technical consultants: William Liu, Julian Goldman
Exhibitions:
Cuchifritos Gallery + Project Space
Year:
2022
Related press:
NYTimes: What to See in N.Y.C. Galleries Right Now
Art in America: Ani Liu at Cuchifritos Gallery + Project Space
Artnet News: Artist Ani Liu Has Some Radical Suggestions for What Pregnancy Could Look Like. It Begins With Artificial Wombs
The Brooklyn Rail: Art Seen, Ani Liu: Ecologies of Care
Science Friday: Processing Postpartum With AI And Synthetic Breast Milk Art
BOMB Magazine: Embodied Knowledge: Ani Liu Interviewed by Hallie McNeill
Hyperallergic: Your Concise New York Art Guide for June 2022