Making Something From Nothing
A white paper for a post-pandemic world that CARES for single mothers.
Participatory artwork, 2021.
‘Making Something From Nothing’ is a participatory project made in collaboration with eight Scottish single mothers during the coronavirus lockdown between March-June 2021. The participants were asked to post remnants of their everyday maintenance work in the form of discarded domestic materials (such as hoover dust, leaves, shopping receipts etc) which I turned into pulp and into individual sheets of handmade paper. The resulting paper was posted back to the participants along with a creative writing task asking them to reflect on their experiences during the pandemic. These writings were then returned to me and collectively re-pulped into 17 final sheets. The resulting ‘white paper’ is accompanied by a manifesto influenced by Mierle Laderman Ukeles’ Manifesto for Maintenance Art (1969). The final sheets of paper and manifesto were posted out to various MSP’s, news and media corporations in June 2021, thus leaving nothing behind other than digital documentation and hope for systemic change.
The socio-economic disadvantage, social exclusion and stigmatisation faced by single mothers has been well documented in recent years and with a recent report finding that 80% of single parents have experienced discrimination within the areas of employment, government benefits, access to housing, fees and charges, and more recently, Covid-19 restrictions (Single Parents Rights Campaign 2021), the challenges faced by single mothers are wide ranging. Despite this, the voices of single mothers themselves remain strikingly absent from public discourse and contemporary culture (May 2010, Carroll 2017). Despite the fact that the overarching purpose of socially engaged practice is to increase access to art, create social change and advance cultural democracy (Matarasso 2019), there is a severe lack of engagement with single mothers in the arts too, despite their status as a socially excluded group. Making Something From Nothing is an attempt to highlight their continued exclusion.
This white paper calls for a post-pandemic society where single mothers are visible, valued and cared for. It is the blank page for a future manifesto be written upon. It is the starting point for us to ask; how do we create a post-pandemic society that cares for single mothers?
MANIFESTO
MAKING SOMETHING FROM NOTHING
A white paper for a post-pandemic world that CARES for single mothers.
I. IDEAS
A. After the pandemic, who’s going to clap for us on Monday morning?
Chop the onions, hoover the floor, renew the tax credits, walk the dog, check your iron levels, catch the train, empty their schoolbags, sort the mail, apply for benefits, wash those tights, take a covid test, go to the shops, prune the houseplants, sweep the stairs, pull up the weeds, vote in the election, fold the clothes, feed the cat, sharpen those pencils, write the shopping list, fight for benefits, dry the clothes, brush your hair, brush her hair, type up your notes, go to the lecture, hem the curtains, throw out the rug, trim the plants, hoover the bedroom, deal with the ex, feed the bunnies, pick up the poop, pay the bills, light the candle, wash the dishes, find the courage, protect the kids, study harder, get a job, we’re out of money, stay young, do it alone.
OUR MOTHERING WORK IS WORK.
II. ART.
A. Who’s left holding the baby?
B. Art has the power to repair, to connect communities, integrate the isolated and to give voice to the voiceless.
C. Art has ignored single mothers for too long leaving mass media and political rhetoric to construct an identity which demonises, vilifies and punishes us.
D. Collective change requires collective responsibility.
This white paper is made from the invisible labour of 8 single mothers living in central Scotland.
Physical Ingredients:
Receipts, tea bags, flower petals, onion peels, son’s drawing, soil from repotting plant, dust from hoover, Covid-19 home test kit instructions, child tax credit renewal info sheet, IKEA rug chewed by puppy, prescription for iron deficiency after an 18 month wait, train tickets going to placement, contents of L’s schoolbag, package from ear defenders, present receipt from L’s dad, post, tag from a friend’s gift, tights and sock from last few days with holes, supermarket receipt, house plant pruning’s, sweepings from stair (dust, hair), deadheaded flowers from garden (primroses and roses), dahlia tips from growing plants, election leaflet, shopping receipts, seedlings that died, dried rose from mother’s day bouquet, hair from washing machine door, cat hair from hoover brush, general dust, M’s scrunched up maths homework, pencil sharpening’s, shopping list written on back of cat food box, leaves, lint from dryer, voting card, NHS leaflet about weaning, vacuum dust, hair, hoover dust, pear stalks, dead flowers, feathers, uni notes, two-fluffy cotton pads, floor dust, discarded curtain hem, receipts, labels, fallen leaves from house plants, healthy bunny’s messy floor, matted bunny fur, cardboard boxes, wax and match from last night’s relaxing candle, house bunny poo, utility envelope, L’s pencil sharpening’s.
Emotional Ingredients:
Courage, uncertainty, anxiety, love, worry, loss, resilience, stress, optimism, hope, pressure, invisibility, shame, toughness, regret, kindness, independence, nurture, happiness, creativity, pride, accomplishment, loneliness.
III. PROPOSAL.
A. Sometimes making something leads to nothing, and sometimes we can make something from nothing.
B. Artists should encourage all nothings to be somethings.
C. We demand a post-pandemic society that CARES for single mothers.