chick flick

Growing up my family was three, my brother, my dad, and me. My understanding of Mother was that they were women, but they were not mine. In 2001 my Dad married Jennifer Macklem, after nine years of courtship and common law. In the summer of 2009 I accompanied Jen to Eyelevel Gallery, in Halifax Nova Scotia, as her videographer to document her performance Chick Art, which was a part of the art festival 35 Days of Unorganized Art. Jen brought an incubator of 24 eggs into the gallery and played Mother Hen. The chicks hatched in the gallery over a period of 3 days.

The return of the chicks to the farm was the climax and the finale. We brought the chirping chicks to the farm at night. We were told to put lavender oil on them, and at the farm lavender oil was stroked onto the Hen’s soft feathers as well. We then placed two Hens and eleven chicks into a large box together, with a lid that was slightly weighted so that it could not be thrown off. Confining the Hens and the chicks into quarters where they were forced to find comfort. “Hens make the best step-mothers,” the farmer said. Jen and I looked at each other with great hope, for the chicks and for us, as we too were finding our comfort in our confinement. The commotion from the box was extraordinary. Everyone in the box had something to say. We left them, and toured the farm. After about forty-five minutes, we decided to leave. Piling into the car, after purchasing eggs for breakfast, the farmer knocked on the window, motioning us to come out and look. He led us to the box where we had left the Hens and our chicks. Silence. Peace was found. He lifted the lid and there were the Hens nestled in with their wings slightly bulged and all the chicks somewhere tucked beneath them, warm. The last chick to be born was the weakest and we were worried it might be expelled from the love. From the first pecking of its shell and through the entire car ride to the farm it did not stop talking, chirping constantly, until its confinement with its Hen. Silence, peace. Jen turned to me with tears in her eyes and we embraced. She’s my Hen.

Together Macklem and I tackled the powerful imagery captured in at Eyelevel Gallery, and produced a video. This project resulted in, though was not intended to, a look at the nature of the our relationship as step-mother and step-daughter.

“Hens make the best step-mothers,” became the keystone of this work. This project began with Macklem’s interest to explore the dynamics between being a woman and being a mother. Chick flick questions the actions and the role of the woman as Mother, regardless of whether she has given birth. The video functions in narrative layers; the birth of the chick, the step-mother (Macklem), and the step-daughter (Jones) are the ribbons that tie around the Mother, innate or performed.

This footage is from a performance by Jennifer Macklem, at Eyelevel Gallery, Halifax, Nova Scotia, for 35 Days of Un-Organized Art, June 2009. Chick Flick was exhibited at Feminism: Now, Anna Leowens Gallery, NSCAD, Halifax NS, Nov. 2009.