HMAS Motherhood
(the single point of failure can’t fail) 2026
Installation mixed media: my old work boot, Hello Kitty child’s shoe, Montessori mobile, Moses baby basket, vintage Army blanket, bamboo skewers, silk thread, sawdust, inherited Mickey Mouse toy, military parachute cord, Mother’s Day bookmark and a beaded keyring made by Imogen Rae, collaged ‘big drawings’ collaboratively drawn by Imogen Rae, Mark Ogge and Kat Rae.
When my Army veteran husband died by suicide, our child was two.
The responsibility of keeping our little family’s ship on course felt monumental.
An Army psychologist told me, “When you’re the single point of failure, you can’t fail.” His words felt oceanic.
Navigating life as an artist, veteran and sole mother is a constant act of balance. I count the soldier’s knots along paracord, marking time and distance traversed. My work is cradled in the tension of rupture and repair, endurance and love.
Over the years, I have learned that resilience is not solitary. We are held afloat by a widening circle of care, buoyed by loving community.
This work is showing as part of May We?
Pussy Willow Power Collective present May We?, a collective act of resistance against the subjugation of women. The exhibition reclaims the radical origins of Mothers Day and May Day making a link between historical origins and contemporary concerns.
Historically Mothers Day grew from anti-war sentiments following major military conflicts, such as the American Civil War and World War 1. Today Mothers Day is often softened into a commercial celebration of gratitude and care, while many women and gender-diverse people experience the stark contrast of restrictive expectations and demands.
The roots of May Day lie in Northern Hemisphere fertility festivals, which honour a breadth of living beings including animals, trees and Mother Earth. Nature itself has been marginalised and damaged by patriarchy, colonialism, capitalism and extractive practices. Contemporary concerns for fertility therefore encompass environmental activism. The adoption of May Day by the labour movement neglects women’s ongoing experience of undervalued labour and unpaid work.
May We? brings together a diverse range of experiences and identities through a variety of media, including photography, installation, printmaking, painting, sculpture and video. The works challenge expectations that cast reproduction, fertility, and gender as prescriptive roles and ask how we might collectively rewrite narratives of care, self-determination and the right to define one’s own bodily autonomy.
Pussy Willow Power is a Naarm/Melbourne based collective founded by feminist interdisciplinary artists Kat Rae, Drey Willows and Chiara Zeta. Grounded in principles of social and political justice, their work is informed by lived and professional experiences of trauma, loss and systems of violence.