WHO WE ARE
We are Anna, Ell, Jess, Lauren, Leni, & Medina: six artists and single mothers with diverse creative practices who came together to co-create a visual manifesto.
We developed our ‘moanifesto’ in late 2022 through weekly online discussions where we shared our hopes, dreams and challenges with one another. We decided to use the term ‘moanifesto’ as a humorous and tactical move to reclaim our power when so often we are told to ‘stop moaning’. Our aim was to create something that made visible our shared challenges but also made room for our individual voices. Each artist therefore produced an individual creative response to the moanifesto. You can find out more about each artist and see their creative responses below.
This project was made possible with thanks to seed funding from Magnetic North Theatre Company in 2022. Our moanifesto is just the beginning: we are calling for urgent action to support artists who are also single mothers. If you would like to support the project through donations, helping us secure additional funding, or if you can offer other resources please get in touch with us.
Anna Oldfield
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Anna Oldfield, Breadwinner, performance, 2023.
Anna Oldfield is an Oxford-based artist and solo parent whose work (when it makes it beyond the confines of her iPhone notes), is performance-based or immersive site-specific installations weaving history, mythology and folklore with participatory ritual. She often works collectively and collaboratively to create pieces of environmental activism and social commentary, particularly concerning mental health and the welfare system.
Ell Sinclair
Ell Sinclair, Doing What Needs Done, video, 2023.
Ell is a solo mother based in East Lothian whose work is rooted in Scottish traditional arts and culture. With a background in Highland Dance and Scottish Step Dance, Ell is a trustee for the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland and Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland. Ell is interested in participatory arts and choreographic practice, using participant led approaches to create performance work for public displays and community projects.
Jessica Timmis
Jessica Timmis, Moanifesto Performance, 2023.
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We don’t want to contain more.
We don’t want additional burdens .
We want to have some fun and be playful!
Patriarchy does not respect single mothers.
We are stigmatized – we are a threat.
Containing whilst not being contained is difficult.
Containing whilst being systemically attacked is demoralizing.
The unequal demands of the system so frequently stop play.
My daughter and I staged a lurid pink, playful, potentially threatening picnic.
Drawing on biographical lineage material, I stated a desire to heal some systemic and familial wounds and devote time to play.
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Jessica Timmis is an artist based in Leamington Spa. She draws, paints, writes and is now experimenting with performance in her work. Her interests include the concept of autobiography, the body, pleasure, class and utopia. She gained DYCP arts council funding for her work in 2022. Jessica studied for an AHRC MA in Feminism and Visual Arts at Leeds University twenty years ago. She is an HCPC registered Art Psychotherapist and a visiting lecturer on the Fine Art Degree at Coventry University, she also runs experimental workshops online and in person. She is a solo caring mother to two children aged 19 and 6, and has largely single parented throughout.
Lauren McLaughlin
Lauren McLaughlin, Don't Throw The Baby Out With The Bath Water; handmade bath bomb, 2023.
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Ingredients: bath water, onion peel, egg shells, egg box, receipts, unsuccessful scratch card, letters from school, NHS letter about overdue smear test, credit card statements, journal pages, fallen leaves, melted snow, pet hairs, hoover dust, tears, kale stalks, to-do lists, tampon string.
Lauren McLaughlin is a multidisciplinary artist based in Edinburgh. Her work encompasses a range of materials and processes from collage, neon and sculpture, to socially engaged and curatorial projects. Throughout her practice, Lauren seeks to amplify the invisible, overlooked and undervalued experiences of mothering, care work and economic inequality.
Leni Dothan
Leni Dothan, digital collage, 2023.
Leni Dothan is an Israeli-born artist, architect and researcher based in London who blends her skills and knowledge in dealing with the overlooked representations of women and especially mothers in art history and contemporary culture, as well as eco-political urgent subjects.
Medina Mukhayer
Creative response delayed due to the challenges of being a single mother. Check back soon...