Use of the Erotic on the Fridge, 2020, Inkjet printer on printable magnetic sheets
The birth of my first child in February 2019 changed my life. I now see things that were invisible to me before. Society is under an illusion that human bodies can be treated like machines. Mothers are expected to sacrifice themselves for their children. Artists are expected to sacrifice themselves for the sake of art. I choose to get out of this system, the old world.
Motherhood is teaching me to listen to my own body and accept the present. I embrace what I have and what I experience. I take care of myself as a radical act and see the unique characteristics of motherhood as my resources and inspirations rather than obstacles to my artistic practice. This new decade of my work celebrates personal sensations and aims to heal the traumatized social body to fight against systemic violence.
Use of the Erotic on the Fridge is a custom made magnetic poetry kit with a vocabulary derived from Audre Lorde’s Use of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power. Lorde sees the erotic as women’s “most profoundly creative source,” so I made this kit to remember my power despite my everyday business. Language deeply affects our cognitive process. With my sister’s tools, I will dismantle the “racist, patriarchal, and anti-erotic society.”