Future Mothers is a collective vision/structure /practice that takes the form of prints, installation, books, and interactive performance. Using printmaking as a platform Future Mothers work from a shared lexicon of imagery and construct densely layered objects, structures, and participatory environments for communicating timeless narratives and responding to contemporary social-political events.
The first Future Mothers project was launched at the Institute of Contemporary Art at MECA in Portland, Maine. The installation took the form of a tent and was designed as both object and space of experience. The Bedouin tents that populate the desert regions of the Middle East inspire the assembled form. The tent is imagined as a nomadic, temporary space, made to interrupt the white cube of the gallery. The interior of the tent is a contemplative space designed for reflection and dialog. The interior and exterior of the tent are densely covered with elaborate and various combinations of imagery from the artists shared lexicon. The images are printed directly onto the fabric panels and other imagery is composed of printed and cut paper forms. Images and forms, including books and totems, are constructed, attached, suspended, and stacked in various dimensional combinations inside and outside the tent.
A socially engaged art project creating open spaces and platforms for community building, public action and social change.
Artists Elizabeth Jabar and Colleen Kinsella of the Future Mothers art collective present the project FUTURE BRIDGES. The FUTURE BRIDGES project includes a mobile tent and a series of community events and actions within the City of Portland. The overarching goal of Future Mothers is to increase equity and inclusion, generate dialog, and engage communities in collaborative art making as a tool for social change.
The artists will partner with educational communities, artists, activist, teachers and community leaders on public programming. This includes art making activities and workshops such as screen printing, sewing, drawing and book making. In these community settings the tent becomes a space and vehicle for learning and civic engagement. Participants will have the opportunity to engage in creative projects, share stories about their communities, explore and discuss local and/or national social issues, meet new neighbors and build relationships.
As the tent travels to multiple sites within the greater Portland area, viewers become participants and generate visual, written, and recorded material. Throughout the duration of project individual responses will be added to the project website www.futuremothers.org. The website will feature participants stories and creative projects and serve as a platform for their voices to be heard and their histories represented.