ARTISTS STATEMENT
These works explores the physiological and sensory experience of parenting, while dipping into structures of identity that are lost, gained and transformed in becoming caregiver to another. I am interested in the theme of identity as an interplay between the personal (self-identification) and the societal (identities imposed upon us). My perspective is specifically one of a parent who has carried pregnancies and birthed live children. I explore playing with the dichotomy of a body that is autonomous and also intrinsically depended upon. I invite play with the use of my children’s drawings as offering fantastical characters, elements of invited friction, stand in place keepers for mental illness and invisible disability made visible, as well as an opportunity to question societal expectations of parent artists to separate themselves from their role as parent in order to be artist, rather than infiltrating the space of creation. In all of my more current works since 2021, I am interested in examining notions of “performative mothering” and “performative sanity” and have begun introducing the anthropological history of clowning and the archetype of “the fool” into my practice – taking a male dominated historical role of truth teller (often also disabled) and exploring how it might play out from a feminist perspective.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Catherine Mellinger (she/they) is a mixed media, inter-arts and community embedded artist who was born and raised on Treaty 6 territory (colonially named Saskatoon), and is now living on land that is part of the Haldimand Tract, belonging to the Haudenosaunee, Anishnaabe and Neutral Peoples (colonially named Waterloo). She is a first generation settler living with invisible disabilities and raising children with disabilities. Her works have been exhibited across Turtle Island/North America and published Internationally, as well as commissioned by musicians, writers and private collectors. Collaborations include an artistic exchange with contemporary writer Marianne Apostolides, which resulted in a suite of images that was published in Apostolides’ book Deep Salt Water (published by book*hug 2017). She is lead artist and collaborator of Post-Part, an inter-arts exhibition in collaboration with Nat Janin, Adam Harendorf and Pazit Cahlon inspired by the short story The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, last exhibited as part of CAFKA21. She continues to be inspired by collaboration, in particular with other artist parents. She is honoured to have been mentored by and collaborated with artists such as choreographer Jennifer Dallas, photographer Melanie Gordon, arts dramaturge Coman Poon, contemporary artist Aislinn Thomas and photographer and director Christopher Sherman.
© Catherine Mellinger