Occupation:  Housewife

The idea for this project was sparked by my research into Feminism, with this whole area of study being a revelation to me in both general and personal terms.  In particular I have been concerned with the expectations placed on women by society and themselves.  I have been examining the constant tension I feel between my roles as wife/mother and artist and the compromises I make to work within these restraints.

I find myself frustrated by the endless, time consuming task of housework and how I can spend hours cleaning and yet the final result is a very subtle shift, too small for most to notice.  I hoped to show the endless, nature of the domestic routine and choose to focus on ironing, using my skills to produce a series of shirts, perfectly pleated and manipulated to be useless.

My washing machine zoetrope contains images of a woman endlessly ironing.

I think the two elements have a strong narrative and talk about a woman confined in an endless cycle of housework; a woman who is showing us what she is capable of in a way that displays humour as she quietly subverts the invisible task of ironing.