info
/
1
·
In Place.
Lindsey A. Wolkowicz and Dillon Paul
digital video
running time 10:14
Originally screened at FADO in Toronto, Ontario, Canada as a part of the New Maternalisms exhibition curated by Natalie Loveless
The piece can be viewed in full here:
vimeo.com/40964544
In Place is a result of Movement + Stillness; the ongoing research of Lindsey Wolkowicz and her partner/ collaborator Dillon Paul.
Being a parent is a constant balance between the creation of structures and the hope to be openly, fluidly present. At the core of these seemingly polar desires is time; time for sleep of both parent and child, the distance between eating, between bowel movements, time when childcare is needed, the amount of time spent at work, the amount of time left in the day afterward to spend with your child, the need to find energy in whatever time presents itself, the time needed to have a romantic relationship, friendships, for self care, for self actualization, and the time needs to show support for your child’s own self-actualization. These units of time become puzzle pieces moved around within the course of a day, a week, a year and the need for them to fit together somehow into a cohesive, stable, safe construction that somehow lets air pass through it freely, feels like one of the most constant and necessary challenges of life with a child.
In Place presents the viewer with a time-lapsed view into the shifting puzzle pieces of the artists’ family. From the overhead perspective of the parents’ bed, we see the course of a day pass marked by these aforementioned units of time. Time becomes embedded in the routines of the family members 24 hours a day and the changes in routine based upon the structure and demand of each day of the week. This bed is the location for many of the daily rituals from nighttime sleep and wakefulness, to morning family togetherness, bottles before naps, stories read, diapers changed, clothes changed into pajamas, kisses goodnight, and the adults unpacking of the contents of the day as it closes. By keeping the access point of the audience fixed, the bed becomes a singular stage upon which the rhythms of the day- to- day are presented to the viewer. Here one is given a sense of the patterned shifts from frenetic movement, to attempts at stillness, to periods of rest as the family navigates its way through a day together, anchored around the well-being of the child and the cultivation her own sense of self.