Art Lives Here
Domestic. Surburban. Mother.
When I interrogated [Linda Brescia] and the other mother artists in Sydney’s west about how we (I?) could keep on making art she responded: 'I consider myself a feminist but I’m the one who scrubs the toilets.' In my mind that line is essentially what all her art is about – that seemingly contradictory position of being a deeply political feminist and knowing that at the end of the day you’re still responsible for cleaning the shit.
Conflicted Feelings: in conversation with Marikit Santiago and her work
Instead of separating out the different parts of her life, Santiago finds ways to 'live across', and this has led her to consciously bringing her children in as collaborators as well as subjects. Her depiction of them in The divine – awarded the prestigious Sulman Prize in 2020 – is their most notable appearance. The painting is a profound expression of maternal love as well as a meditation on legacy and the idea of original sin as 'an inherited condition' that spans generations.