Stepford mothers
================

* Anne Marie Todkill

Motherhood issues are the subject of a collaborative installation on view at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria until March 19. In *fieldnotes from maternal territory: An Exhibition about Mothering,* Vancouver-based artists jil p. weaving and Margaret Naylor probe our expectations of a role that is becoming increasingly politicized by the combined pressures of economics, technology and societal change. The exhibition was first mounted by the Surrey Art Gallery in the winter of 1997-1998. FIGURE 1

![Figure1](http://www.cmaj.ca/https://www.cmaj.ca/content/cmaj/162/4/542/F1.medium.gif)

[Figure1](http://www.cmaj.ca/content/162/4/542/F1)

Figure 1. Margaret Naylor, *Treehouse* (detail). From *fieldnotes from maternal territory* "There is no basic [mother], no fixed identity, but only a construction in progress."

Naylor's mixed-media sculptural pieces express in narrative and symbolic terms the "apprehension and doubt" that surround the mother's role as "nurturer," "teacher" and "protector." Her hand-built, quasi-architectural models are metaphors for mothering as "a cultural construct, shaped through repetition of language, images and design that carry with them certain ideological positions."

weaving's contribution includes a Web site (accessible at [aggv.bc.ca](http://aggv.bc.ca)) for the Department of Maternal Affairs, a fictional government agency that regulates reproduction and childrearing. In weaving's dystopian vision, children are conceived in vitro from genetically manipulated gametes and implanted in "mombots," robotic clones of the biological mother. Through a simulated pregnancy, the real mother can enjoy the "maternal thrill of hormonal change" without interrupting her career, while the development of her fetus is monitored through the mombot's transparent womb. The mombot raises the child within parameters approved by the state, managing all domestic and maternal duties with superlative ability and cheerfulness until the child enters school. Then, sensing her redundancy, she returns to the DMA in her state-issued minivan for decommissioning. In the gallery installation, a series of 29 cartoon panels narrates the case of a deviant mombot who disguises herself as a human.

The satire is extreme, but the dilemma it describes is familiar to many women struggling to position themselves within a shifting field of values and demands. Amid the many constructions of motherhood - ranging from greeting-card sentiment to the medicalization of pregnancy to the appraisal of mothering as "time out" - many a working mother has been reduced to a mombot. FIGURE 2

![Figure2](http://www.cmaj.ca/https://www.cmaj.ca/content/cmaj/162/4/542/F2.medium.gif)

[Figure2](http://www.cmaj.ca/content/162/4/542/F2)

Figure 2. jil p. weaving, ... *to be continued* (detail). Panel # 2, 46 cm × 34 cm. From *fieldnotes from maternal territory*

weaving and Naylor preface the exhibition with quotations from feminist theory, but they also take pains to represent motherhood without a mediating critique. A "room of honour" displays more than 150 photographs, on loan from the general public, of mothers and their children. In inviting these contributions the artists have attempted to reflect the diversity of the community and to counteract their own psychosocial biases. One of the challenges of feminism is to avoid replacing one set of values with an equally repressive alternative. Another is to refute stereotypes while maintaining an entitlement to some of the very attributes - femininity, for example - that stereotypes exaggerate and thus deride. weaving and Naylor's awareness of these challenges prevents this intensely political work from becoming reductively so. Mothers may be social constructs, but that doesn't mean they aren't also real. FIGURE 3

![Figure3](http://www.cmaj.ca/https://www.cmaj.ca/content/cmaj/162/4/542/F3.medium.gif)

[Figure3](http://www.cmaj.ca/content/162/4/542/F3)

Figure 3. Clemie Hoshino, mother and piano teacher, with children. From the *fieldnotes from maternal territory* "room of honour"