Revisiting Mothers Apart:
Life in the Goldfish Bowl (2014)
As the UK went into lockdown last year, the distinct impact of these measures on mothers living apart from their children started to emerge. Increased isolation left women wondering about the children they couldn’t see. Face to face contact became virtual as mothers found themselves out of their children’s support bubbles.. Those whose children were adopted left wondering how their children were doing. Family courts were conducted remotely leaving with women with little or no support.
As a collective we gathered online and remembered ‘Life in the Goldfish Bowl’, an exhibition originally curated with the Mental Health Museum in Wakefield in 2014. We trawled the stores for the pieces taking photographs and short films for us to share. Sitting in our own homes the issues seemed as relevant on 2020 as ever. Now in 2021 as we launch the exhibition online we have seen the inequalities exposed by the pandemic. We may all be in the same storm but we are certainly not in the same boat. Unable to access communities for support and distraction in the same way we were encouraged to use outdoor spaces for exercise. Some of us had gardens, some of us did not. Some of us felt comfortable in outdoor public spaces some of us did not.
Being able to take a creative approach to our work has enriched the way we process difficult experiences and helped us to learn more about ourselves and make sense of the world we live in.
Mothers Apart – Common Threads Collective
