Vee Malnar’s Canberra exhibition The Mother Expectation features overlooked household items, drawing parallels between the similarly unsung duties and expectations of motherhood.
Artist Vee Malnar jokes that she has created the world’s first portrait of a vacuum and a mop.
“I saw a mop, and I thought ‘Isn’t that beautiful?’,” Malnar said.
“Because I realised that domestic objects haven’t been given the same status as a grand piano or crystal glass — and that’s often the way that people have status.”
She added that household items, which had traditionally been associated with so-called ‘women’s work’, were overlooked and undervalued.
One of Malnar’s paintings, titled Women in a Wash Basket, seeks to tackle that complex decision.
“She is a young woman, and she was contemplating whether or not to become a mother,” Malnar said.
Maternal scholar Dr Joan Garvan said Malnar’s exhibition had helped to lift private and gendered experiences in the home into a public space, encouraging discussion.
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