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| Lilla's Birthing film still 2010 |
While there are various representations of women in labour, these tend to focus attention on the event of the child’s birth, not the woman’s birthing process, often objectifying her in favour of the subjectivity of the newborn. Lilla’s Birthing seeks to redress this, re-establishing the birthing woman as empowered within her own labouring, not victim of it.
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| Lilla's Birthing film still 2010 |
Through a normalised woman centred portrayal of birthing, the widespread misrepresentation of labouring women and their bodies is undermined. The camera remains as closely as possible with the woman, the edit favours the process over the event (the birth itself occupies seconds out of the 45 minutes of the film’s length), the humour, mundanity, excitement, joy, boredom and the pain intermingle, the cyclical rhythm of the contractions setting the pace.
Portrait of a Labour is a book work which works with and against Lilla’s Birthing. The intimacy of the book format allows the viewer to examine that which the film denies, the expression, the identity, the representations of her which the film references (you see these shots being taken) but refuses.
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| Portrait of A Labour 2010 installation shot SIX exhibition 2010 |
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| Portrait of A Labour artist's book 2010 Lilla's Birthing is now available on to watch on Vimeo http://vimeo.com/21657450 or for better quality viewing on DVD please contact me. The work is also available for exhibition. |
