Len-Len & Pauline Reynolds present intimate self-portraits that offer insight into their commitment to manage and sustain the tremendous task of nurturing both offsprings—child and work.

Text courtesy of Sam Feleo
Images courtesy of Vinyl on Vinyl
March 2, 2023

LABOR

Len-Len & Pauline Reynolds
February 11, 2023
Vinyl on Vinyl

You are a mother. You should not even doubt your strength.

A mothers’ experience of maternity and labor is central to her sense of self and understanding of the world. Labor— at best, is a powerful and transformative experience that brings forth new life into this world—at worst, a traumatic process that literally feels like shitting a pumpkin—  and yet the labor that we speak of does not confine itself to childbirth; instead, it remains as a permanent and never-ending component of motherhood. 

Pushing for practice

It is already acknowledged that mothering and artmaking are not mutually exclusive, in fact there are a lot of artist-mothers who are successful in their careers. Nevertheless, there is a dearth of material and a lack of conversation about the unique and inordinate amount of challenges that the artist-mother must face in order to carry on with her practice. 

Tillie Olsen's words in The Silences offer an insightful perspective into the creative mothers’ struggles mainly due to the limited perception of the patriarchal construct “motherhood”.

“Motherhood means being instantly interruptible, responsive, responsible... It is distraction, not meditation, that becomes habitual; interruption, not continuity; spasmodic, not constant, toil. Work interrupted, deferred, postponed makes blockage—at best lesser accomplishment. Unused capacities atrophy, cease to be.” (Olsen)

Indeed, it is difficult to reconcile the conflicting desires of having both a creative outlet and fulfilling familial commitments. However uncompromising, being a mother does not mean a loss of capacity but rather the necessary adoption of a different form of creation, one that requires a balancing act despite the odds of fragmented attention, time, and action. 

The artist-mother must have an inordinate amount of determination, focus, and resilience to maintain faith in her vision while carving out the time and space necessary to execute creative work. By accepting and embracing the dualites of this situation, the artist-mother does not only challenge the traditional notion of the great artist as a single minded male of great concentration and tenacity, it also fuels her creative endeavors, leading to some of her most powerful works.

Often overlooked is how the subject-position of mother shapes one’s artistic pursuits in ways that are not limited to producing works of a particular style or theme. Informed by a mother’s viewpoint, the artist opens up to explore matters not solely of family and domesticity, but also of struggle and rebellion. Furthermore, the reordering of one's commitments may also result in the development of specific and formal material investigations, that eventually evolve techniques and procedures that maximize one's productivity to make more out of less. 

Undoubtedly, the artist’s metamorphosis into motherhood can refine and deepen her approach to her craft, allowing the creation of unique and challenging work that have the potential to transform our understanding of art and gender in a broader social sense.

On Len-Len

Through her works, Len-Len explores the complex and nuanced realities of motherhood by giving visibility to the expectations and duties associated with it, as well as questioning the power dynamics at play within a gender-stratified society. She further reflects on how capitalism has led to the systematic oppression of limiting women's choices concerning motherhood, and why it is viewed more as a duty than a privilege.  

Len-Len’s work is created upon real people and real life stories. But whether they are built on her story or somebody else’s, the emotional load is not easy to handle when dealing with these works. At the beginning of every painting, she gets deep into the feeling and falls in love with memories, narrating them through the lines of a body, a wounded skin, a scar, a sight, or touch.

With an inward looking approach and a delicately nuanced treatment of her medium, Len-Len creates emotionally charged works that are figurative and deeply refined in its exploration and expression of a mother’s emotional labor. 

She forms an aesthetic interest in mundane, household objects commonly used by mothers in their domestic routine-a chopping board, an ironing board, oven mittens, a baby’s dress- and employs them as base material of her work. Through these objects, Len-Len is able to uncover a load of meanings that speaks of mother as caregiver, provider, and nurturer, illustrating a socio-cultural understanding of motherhood in a more meaningful way. 

The chopping board painting is a powerful statement that relates the female body to an object that receives knife blows as one plays the role of mother. For Len-Len, the repetition of everyday chores become symbolic and transformative as she embraces the idea of becoming one with such domestic tasks. 

The dress atop the ironing board is a metaphor of love lost— a poignant reminder of her daughter's life and the burden a mother must endure. The incorporation of the serigraph prints are excerpts taken from her diary that adds an even deeper element, allowing viewers to get a personal glimpse into her innermost thoughts and sentiments.

On Reynolds 

In contrast, Reynolds work is raw, abstract expression, incorporating a variety of materials in a style that recalls the formal and expressive qualities of the assemblage work of her male counterparts. 

Crafted with a self-consistent language of form that has been worked -out through long periods of individual experimentation, Reynolds highlight the surreal amalgamation of found objects (paper, fabric, photographs, wood, metal, plastic, and other everyday items) which she incorporates with excerpts from her journals and the letters she has written for her children. By blending personal aspects with elements of pop culture and traditional media, Reynolds transforms materials into striking pieces that offer a powerful language that does not necessarily equate to the quintessential “feminine style”. And so, what is immediately apparent is the stylistic contrast between the work of the two artists. With no common qualities of "femininity" that may link each other. Despite that, we should not forget that the notion of “femininity” in art should not be seen simply in terms of a binary "masculinity vs femininity" scale. Surely, Reynold’s work is a demonstration that artist-mothers can create in a broad range of styles and subject matter, crossing boundaries and exploring diverse topics. 

Underlying the formal qualities of her work, Reynolds is motivated by the belief that art-making is a way to get back to an autonomous self, an essential activity of self-reflection and the creation of a safe space that grounds one in the present moment. Grounding one's self is vital for Reynolds and it is the act of art-making that allows her to redirect her attention and energy away from negative thoughts and feeling, promoting emotional regulation and a sense of calm that is essential for the balance of life and work. 

Transcending labor

By giving value to the notion of creativity as a way to elevate the spirit and move past the difficulty that is labor, artist-mothers Len-Len & Reynolds achieve a better sense of accomplishment and power in their lives, and through their conceptualization of LABOR, they acknowledge the unique and valuable perspectives that artist-mothers bring to the world of art, giving them visibility not only as equally valid creators but as individuals of great strength.