Care Construction I

Acrylic paints, plywood, lavender oil, lavender, screws. 295 x 450 x 75 mm, 2021.

My grandmother lost her voice due to Motor Neurone Disease last year. Trapped in another state, my family tried to find ways for me to perform acts of care from afar. They tasked me with drawing communication charts so my grandmother could convey her basic needs to family and carers by moving her eyes. As I drew the various chores of living, the four pages I had to work with filled up. By prioritising these banal necessities, I worried I was erasing who she was by limiting what she could communicate. In this work, I revisit that erasure and reconsider the charts as both tools to enact care and as a space lovingly constructed for me to perform care in.

This work was a Finalist in the 2021 ANU Drawing Prize.

Photographs: Rory Gillen