Babygate

2024

Found wooden baby gate, fabric, rope, ribbon, yarn, fake flowers, family jewelry, plastic barrettes, plastic beads, lace, wool, nylon stockings, paint

39 x 30 x 3 inches

Description:

Using a found baby gate as the frame, I invite the viewer to follow patterns woven through the left side of the gate, which represent my maternal lineage. Here, I’ve included materials (jewelry, ribbon) gleaned from my grandmothers. The right side represents me, or the daughter. The right side maintains a connection and some of the same materials, but the pattern is changed and growing out of the frame in new ways. I am child-free by choice and have named this piece “Babygate.” The quote around the frame reads: “Woman is not born: she is made. In the making, her humanity is destroyed. She becomes symbol of this, symbol of that: mother of the earth, slut of the universe; but she never becomes herself because it is forbidden for her to do so.” — Andrea Dworkin