homemaker

Made bespoke for Outhouse Gallery, a cast of the gallery's interior has been knitted in full scale and lies, slumped across the gallery floor. It is as if the bare structure, like an idealised mother, has manifested the vestiges of home. But Outhouse Gallery is too cold to open through the winter, so the work is inaccessible, seen only through the glass. Homemaker is a reflection on the homelessness crisis, and short-sighted strategies that treat accommodation as if it were the whole solution. In particular, it draws on the experience of mothers raising children under conditions of poverty and systemic disadvantage, where they are expected to create the trappings of home - a nurturing, stable environment - despite barriers such as insecure work, low pay, limited support for those fleeing violence, and other structural inequalities. Following the exhibition, the piece will be unravelled and re-knitted into blankets, distributed to homeless people in London through Craft Forward's Blankets for London. The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of workshops TBC