The Department of Human Capital

Sarah Irvin 

Artist Statement 

My practice is enabled by and exists within the context of motherhood as both a lived experience and social construct. By responding to the biological act of bearing an infant and the discipline of care-taking that is the commitment to “mother” a child, I seek to open up a dialog about what it means to take on these responsibilities and how these actions shape the individual performing them. The pieces are derived from the everyday, but the interface of materials and processes of art making with the everyday provides an entry point into broader topics of gender, production, reproduction, care, biological processes, and cultural systems.