Mother's Day

By Stephanie Anne Johnson
Materials: frying pans, fluorescent lights, steel wool,
copper wool, metal armature 
Size: variable as a group of five.
Date: 1999

Simply stated, it is the hardest and most important job in the world. Though the titles vary (Mom, Auntie, Grandmother, Sister, Friend), the task remains the same metaphorically and physically, the nurturing and feeding of us all. From the Euripides' Medea to Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls...... , from the psychoanalytical theories of Freud and Melanie Klein to Nancy Chodorow, it is clear that the roles and modes we attribute to mothers are very complex. Mothering embodies cognitive dissonance, it necessitates the bringing together of seemingly disparate actions, beliefs and people into the entity we call the family. 

Using the objects of daily life, some of the tools of her trade, it is my intention to elevate the women who nurture and sustain life to their proper status, that of deities. This piece is dedicated to my mother, Virginia. . —  Stephanie Anne Johnson