Feelings of my Mother

This artefact exists as a performative response, a short video and a photo. The photo can be seen here.

It emerged from a group exploration in pairs on the question of love, motherly love, love for the mother, love of the mother. At the time of the exploration, the group already knew each other very well; the exploration took place towards the end of the lab.

The impulse was: Where is the mother’s love? Where do I notice, where do I recognise my mother’s love?

Before this impulse was worked on in the group of two, there was a physical impulse for each individual: Where do I feel my mother? Using the 5×5 scheme, we each searched for 15 minutes for the gesture and the area of the body that most strongly carries the physical memory of the mother.

For the artist researchers who worked on this artefact, this was:

1. the hand/hands in the hair, especially when braiding hair, doing hairstyles

2. stroking the cheek with the back of the index finger

This gesture was told and/or shown to the other person in pairs. Both then tried to find a common artistic expression for it.

Both artist researchers had very different emotional connections to the gestures. On the one hand, the emotion of love that remains, a fire that always burns in which recognition and gratitude can be found. On the other hand, the emotion of destruction, a love that burns itself out in loving, a fire that no longer burns, that brings tears of destruction with it.

The three phases of the dandelion symbolise the phases of a match that is whole, is lit and burns. In burning, it can extinguish, ignite a new match and thus pass on either the warmth or the destruction.

When a dandelion blossom is blown away by the wind, the blossoms are carried into the world with the wind and a new dandelion can grow. However, the original plant remains empty and naked, it has fulfilled its purpose and dies. The shape of the dandelion without flowers is reminiscent of the shape of a matchstick.