50 things my son doesn’t need me for

‘50 things my son doesn’t need me for’ (2011) explores the changing relationship between the artist and her son, and speaks about issues of loss. The artist’s interest is with the details and familiarity of everyday events. She focuses on unremarkable maternal experiences of daily life that relate to a particular time but which articulate both the extraordinary and the momentous, and represent the more fundamental changes that will inevitably occur as her son grows older. In the video, the artist is seen writing on a blackboard, and then erasing, 50 things that her son no longer needs her for. The video draws on the temporary nature of the items on the list; how quickly those things disappear. The artist focuses on the notion of loss as experienced from the mother’s perspective. The work explores feelings of maternal ambivalence, trapped in monotony, and the inherent contradictions with positive memories of closeness with her son.