Mother/Son - Lateral Movements
social project, 3 workshops
July 2022 as part of the Xarkis Festival and Residency

Before going to Agros, Cyprus, I considered the particularities of the mother/son relationship as it pertains or is influenced by patriarchal, colonial, or environmental qualities of the history of Cyprus.

As a methodology, I chose to consider activities and modes of engagement that were lateral and non-hierarchical. Activities included group sewing and discussions around motherhood held in Cypriot with a translator.

I engaged with the community of Agros through an incredible female entrepreneur with 4 sons, Niki Agathokleous, who founded and runs Niki Sweets, an internationally recognized fine sweets production house. She was head of the women’s association and as well, had a particular feminist attitude without necessarily identifying herself as a feminist. She only employed female workers, which was shocking as for the most part surrounding the town only men could be visible during the day drinking coffee or meeting with friends.

What came out of the  workshop was actually something quite gentle. As an artist sensitive to the modes of extractive and exploitative creative processes especially with site specific or community based work, I wanted this time to be for the women and their sons to discuss and gather. I did not want to come in with a particular mind-set or goal for data or research. The workshop held with the women of Agros was supported by Anastasia McCammon who helped to translate and speak to the women present. The culmination of the project was a presentation as part of the festival days in which I tried to weave the durational performance from the day before with my experience of the residency and project therein. I then lead the participants of the festival workshop through a thinking exercise by Snejanka Mihaylova.

The thinking exercise was also used during the workshops and discussions with the women’s association as a means to expand our thinking around the identity of the mother. To consider the symbolic order or semiotic representational economy of motherhood beyond the surface.

Though there were no explicit productive outcomes, I felt that this project became a sort of method to produce a catalyst in other environments. A mode of doing with a community that is for the community and not for any creative or purely artistic endeavor. For that, I believe, and I know through feedback, that this project was successful. Niki will always remain an icon to me and I feel honored to have heard mothers responding to questions about how they actually feel about their own positions within a mediterranean space of hyper-masculinity and gender-codes.