BINATIONAL ARTISTIC PhD-PROGRAM

2nd Hochkantfilmfest Bremen “Sehnsucht”, Waterfront Bremen, exhibition view.

The Reproductive work, which is often performed by women* in the home, remains invisible in the capitalist system with its equation of work and wages. The historical division between the private space as a place of reproduction and the public space as a place of production leads to the isolation of reproductive workers. Lactoland shows a protagonist - the milkworker - gazing longingly out of the window into the sun. Many people still perceive the sight of breastfeeding in public as an imposition. Clara Alisch wants to challenge our viewing habits in order to counteract the marginalization of care work.

https://hochkantfilmfest.de/

Videostill, multimedia installation. 

https://www.butenunbinnen.de/videos/clara-alisch-kunstwissenschaftlerin-bonbons-muttermilch-100.html

A woman* sits on an ergonomic chair. She is wearing work clothes and is looking out of the window. She administers a breast pump to her bare breast with a routine motion. The place is reminiscent of a production hall. Sun is shining through the windows. The noise from the pump fills the room. A tinge of yellow. It all starts with a drop. Another drop. Each drop counts. A milk producer at work.

Lactoland is a performance of the process which revaluates milk by means of a video show. The historic evolution of women’s milk as an economic substance to what is known as breast milk is being reversed. Viewers can take part instantaneously and interpassively in the procedures of manufacturing Lactoland’s product. Lactoland impressively demonstrates the efforts involved in manufacturing the product. The process of manufacturing comprises the act of pumping milk, the spatial isolation involved as well as the sound and the production of candy from the milk that is pumped. Lactoland aims to create visibility and audibility for feminised reproduction work which tends to be hidden from view in our daily lives, usually in allocated rooms like parent-children rooms, sanitary facilities or at home. The technology of the breast pump promises to be time saving but the mother is effectively becoming the child’s wet nurse which means she is doing the double amount of work. Paid labour, care work and free time are merging into one. This is how many mothers perceive their situation. In order to create visibility for the act of breast-feeding, which is by its nature a temporary act, Lactoland is demonstrating it in a sustainable way, thus searching for means to solve the dilemma of femininity vs. independence. The processes of feminist and artistic production as well as the assumption of naturalised subject positions invite us to question the relationship of parenthood and work by means of visualisation and verbalisation. Daily acts of care taking by way of breast-feeding are at the heart of Lactoland. This art project aims to present a way of changing perspectives in order to allow us to turn invisible care work into something visible. This should lead to the formation of new relationship patterns, as well as counteracting the marginalisation and isolation of care work. The drop of milk with its digital-abject dynamic appears before our eyes and thereby enters the public sphere. Is there a better way to come into contact with human milk, other than by being a parent, child or care worker?

Lactoland is an overall installation consisting of a work of video and sound of approx. 11 minutes, which is being presented alongside a jar of candy filled with the product manufactured exclusively for Lactoland as well as a movable screen. Recipients can watch it behind the screen while sitting on stools provided for this purpose. Lactoland can also be experienced as an audio-visual presentation using a screen or projector. Visibility and audibility of the artistic material are the most prominent means of perception here, in order to document the focus on “reproduction work as work”. Transition is achieved by the possibility of a participation – tasting the candy produced by Lactoland allows for experiencing in a sensual way how the boundaries between work and social inequality with respect to the female body are blurring.

Multimedia installation, installation view, HFBK Hamburg. 

Photo: Janis Fisch

In her video installation Lactoland (2022), Clara Alisch addresses the romanticised notion linked with breastfeeding and the associated image of the mother. It’s about care work, which is traditionally done by women in the domestic sphere and is neither remunerated nor recognised by society. The cyborg—a hybrid being made up of human and machine—is brought into play here. It becomes the protagonist of a setting designed by Alisch in which it makes milk available by expressing it. By using numerous prosthesis-like utensils, the milk is made into bonbons. accompanies the ideal of the mother’s breast and the breastfed baby—into a tale of work that adds value. This comes closer to the new ideal of a transgender world: “machine and organism” and “social reality” and “fiction” are hybridised as a feminist protagonist.

(Melanie Franke, Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart Berlin)

https://projekte.hfbk.net/project/31035d4a-9e6b-46b6-a6dc-640f5de1a605

directed, written and produced by Clara Alisch 

Milkworker 1: A Friend 

Milkworker 2: Clara Alisch

Director of photogrpahy: Anastasia Zeller 

Editor: Anastasia Zeller

Costume Design: Maja Spence

Makeup: Kateryna Nigbur

Sound mixer: Clara Alisch, Janis Fisch, Anastasia Zeller 

Sound Mastering: Janis Müller

Titel Designer: Janis Fisch 

Would you like to try some candy?

Candy jar filled with sweets, multimedia installation, performance: Eszter Forgács, HFBK Hamburg. 

https://other-writers.de/2022/03/12/other-artists-clara-alisch/