Ode to Motherhood –
Kate Gilmore’s Top Drawer
ery few duties in life compare to that of Motherhood. Despite being an undertaking that requires great patience, persistence, and resilience, the true gravity of this venerable responsibility often goes unobserved. The impact a mother can have on a child is a lasting signature of their upbringing yet it remains as a near invisible art. Kate Gilmore
explores the strenuous and often tedious nature of motherhood in her video installation Top Drawer (2014) depicting herself struggle to place nondescript plaster cubes in sixteen comically large drawers that seemingly tower over her. With hair put up in a ponytail, dressed in a simple sundress, and dull flat shoes, Gilmore struggles as she lugs each cube into frame and indiscriminately heave them into the various drawers that subsequently ooze red paint resembling blood.
By Jason Conrad Llaguno, 11/15/2018
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The task itself seems arduous and futile, yet she continues stoically and unquestioning as each drawer seems higher and each cube heavier than the last. The viewer is given only a single vantage point flat against the drawers with minimal opportunities to witness a full-frontal view of her body, let alone her face. Reminiscent of the dreary tasks often imposed on mothers, Gilmore breathes visibility into the veiled labors of maternity. There is no direct reference to children nor birth,
yet her attire, large bureau, and soft lighting elicit a tone of domesticity. The audience doesn’t get to sit with Gilmore, recognize her emotions, and understand her true attitude toward the task; however, by the very act of performing it, she translates an unspoken duty a mother feels toward her children and family. The only thing heard besides the awkward slamming of boxes and creaking of drawers are the guttural groans and grunts Gilmore produces as she toils away with the
thankless chore. The level and static camera characterizes the indifference many have toward this role in society. It’s a job that is more common than anything else yet not necessarily favored by the popular population. The fact the whole piece is one shot and void of any cuts establishes the strenuous nature of motherhood. It is unapologetic in terms of displaying the labors of this role where time is shown in real time and actions performed and toiled at a slow pace.
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Her efforts are understood but her reserved frustration with her disposition is one that only a mother/caretaker can understand. Gilmore critiques the passivity that is often expected of mothers through her lack satisfaction and inability to confront the viewer. As Gilmore struggles in silence she ultimately offers a perspective that both venerates the will required of mother while simultaneously lamenting the existence of domestic work and its relationship with gender-roles. She poses the passive question “why do mothers do what they do?” After watching her struggle to bare each box and maladroitly put it in its place for a brooding twenty-four minutes and twenty-five seconds, Gilmore’s answer slowly divulges itself: a mother does what she does not because she needs to, but because she can to and because she wants to. Top Drawer echoes Gilmore’s denigration of the expectations and imposed functions of mothers, but what resounds even louder than her critique is an awkward, yet endearing love letter to the enduring role of motherhood.