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https://artistparentindex.com/files/original/92a49a04b2b270a25ff35ca15ec82d71.jpg
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Person
An individual.
Website
The Artist's website
<a href="https://www.tracymarietaylor.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">www.tracymarietaylor.com</a>
Location
The location of the interview
Chicago
USA
Artist Statement
Cried Milk (2018 - present)
Cried Milk uses data collected from a smartphone app to visualize what it looks like to exclusively breast pump for twelve months. Each visualization represents one month of data. The blue rings represent one hour, the change in value tracks the hours of sunlight and darkness, while the change in saturation indicates broad weather patterns (sunny versus cloudy). The straight lines each represent one day and the yellow circular bursts represent each 30-minute pumping session. The size of each circle correlates to the quantity of milk collected. This project connect to broader cultural conversations about motherhood. As infertility rates continue to skyrocket, many women experience motherhood through a similar, clinical lens. My hope is that this project gives voice to the millions of women who have struggled to become mothers and honor the under-valued labor of motherhood.
The Shape of Your Sounds (2017 - present)
Using audio surveillance technologies provided by a commercial baby monitor, I capture my baby’s cries and translate that data into visual shapes. The sound waves loop back on themselves in a 360-degree rotation. The result is vaguely reminiscent of the shape of a flower; each burst of sound looks like a petal. The initial purpose for this project was to try to find visual patterns that could be more easily interpreted. However, I quickly realized this was a fool’s game; the visual patterns are as indiscernible as his sounds. Therefore, what remains is a visual record of a moment in time; a beautiful reminder of those sleepless nights when the world was comprised of just my son and myself.
Sleep Regression (2016 – 2017)
“Sleep Regression” is a series of intimate works that were painted in the space of nap times and record the moments I watched my son while working in my home studio. The paintings’ small size and blue palette reproduce the video format and color, mimicking the tension between the close, private space of sleep and the distance created by the act of surveillance. The effects are eerie and disturbing images of rest. Lingering in the unconscious state of sleep the baby’s body looks lifeless. Are these representations of a sleeping child or a fetus? These works are thus unusual documents of baby’s first year of life–odd surrogates for the family photo album.
The gray-scale paintings, on the other hand, reinforce the reference to the sonogram, creating layers of distance. The painting series thus portrays an interesting paradox: the increasing stylistic abstraction chronicles my catharsis after years of fertility struggles as I move further away from my past sorrows, yet the works also reflect a turn inward and becomes more specific to my body (womb) and more private. The delineated forms in black, white, and grey look like the thermal imaging of a birth–drapery resembles the uterine wall, a dark ground morphs into a vaginal opening.
Topic
abstraction
aesthetics
art
artist mother
baby
baby food
bodily transformation
breast milk
breast pump
breastfeeding
breastfeeding advocacy
breastmilk
care
care taking
care work
caregiving
caretaking
communication
conceptual art
contemporary art
creative practice
creative practice and family life
cyborg
daily life
daily routine
daily tasks
data
data tracking
data visualization
documentation
domestic life
domesticity
early motherhood
everyday activities
exhaustion
family and career
feeding
female body
female experience
feminism
feminist
feminist art
food
food systems
gender equality
gender roles
good mother
grief
growth
guilt
healthcare
human body
infant care
invisible labor
isolation
lactation
let down reflex
loss
maternal experience
maternal healthcare
maternal time
medical care
milk
milk jug
money
mother and child
mother artist
mother guilt
mother work
mother/child relationship
motherhood
motherhood and economic context
motherhood as art practice
mothering
motherwork
mundane details
nature vs. technology
nursing
nursing mothers
parental leave
personal
personal boundaries
personal experience
personal space
pumping
record keeping
remembering
repetition
repetitive tasks
representations of motherhood
research and art
sleep deprivation
social norms
son
technology
time
unpaid labor
visualizations
women's health
women's identity
audio waves
archive
care labor
crying
data visualization
documentation
emotional space
infants and sleep
language
language development
sleep training
Exhibitions
Exhibitions in the Index that an artist has participated in. The two entries will be linked.
2018- “Fits and Starts,” Roman Susan Gallery, Chicago, IL
2018- “The Shape of Your Sounds” (solo), Sonnenschein Gallery, Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, IL
<a href="http://www.artistparentindex.com/items/show/471">2019 - "While I Was Away" (solo), Roman Susan Gallery, 1224 W. Loyola Ave. Chicago, IL</a>
<a href="http://www.artistparentindex.com/items/show/495">Painting at Night, Fort Houston Gallery, Nashville, TN</a>
Medium
acylic
flashe
sculpture
digital
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Tracy Marie Taylor