Nurture presents motherhood as a durational performance and as an act of love and labor. In the role of the archetypal Mother, the artist offers her empathy and her body to the audience in an intimate, one-on-one interaction. Holding participants in her arms so that they may suckle from her breast, she plays a soundtrack of lullabies sung by mothers in different languages, while inviting them to discuss their thoughts about their mothers or motherhood.

Breasts are maternal and erotic symbols, representing the conflicting roles of Madonna and Whore. In either role, the female body is a body that does not belong entirely to itself. Prior to the performance, the artist follows a daily regimen of breast pumping, hormone therapy, herbal supplements, and visualization exercises to induce and mimic the experience of lactation.

Whether nurturing is a natural or socialized ability, women often face an unspoken expectation to provide emotional and physical care for others. Breastfeeding is not only a form of sustenance for infants, but also appears in literature, religion, and mythology (Roman Charity, The Grapes of Wrath) as a metaphor for spiritual nourishment and women’s selflessness. In adult nursing relationships, adults engage in breastfeeding for sexual gratification or to enhance emotional intimacy.

Maternal bodies provoke public anxiety and discomfort, manifesting in censorship, shaming, and restrictions on reproductive rights. In recent years, women have attempted to liberate the female body through “lactivism” and social media campaigns such as #FreeThe Nipple. By publicly performing the private act of breastfeeding, Nurture makes visible unacknowledged maternal labor, confronts social taboos concerning the female body, and exposes the competing demands fracturing women’s identities.

* Nurture debuts as a one-on-one performance in July 2018 at Tempting Failure in London *

Related: Spilled Milk, a performative lecture on maternal labor

Photography in collaboration with Molly Baber & Jack Xan Louis Murphy.