Woman to Woman is a creative response to the following writing by Alice Laidler x The Seat is Taken.
I found my female in stillness.
In a bagginess with clipped wings -
In a refusal to lift myself off of myself (as though easing a burden).
In my hands matching the weight of my curves –
And searching palms savouring the fall of my skin
In equal measure to the fall of the sun.
More weight? I cried yet the Earth pulled me
closer and swung my hips – side to side - with an
oceanic thrum.
I soon hummed rhythmic celebrations in time with my step and offered my entirety– chin lifted - to
the sun.
I found my female in the steadiness of my gaze
And the healing hatred of controlling yours.
In the cinnamon smoke flooding my thighs
Steeping me in a reek so thick my hips can circle
through it.
In this radical enjoyment of desiring myself -
Every inch -
Before anybody else.
More weight? I cried yet the Earth pulled me
closer and swung my hips – side to side - with an
oceanic thrum.
I soon hummed rhythmic celebrations in time with
my step and offered my entirety– chin lifted - to
the sun.
I found my female in a sacred surrender.
To the circles, the cycles, the softness, the sun…
Tap me closer to the Earth, I pray to the rain
As my skin exhales to the sky.
Knowing that the world won’t hold its breath when I step.
And neither shall I.
More weight and the Earth held me closer and
swung my hips – side to side - with an oceanic
thrum.
I soon hummed rhythmic celebrations in time with
my step and offered my entirety– chin lifted - to
the sun.
'I am going to want to bathe within that glow meant for a smaller version of myself, but I need to swim out further now, further than the reach of your light'
Mother is an exploration into the relationship between mother and daughter, illustrated through writing by Alice Laidler and documentary Polaroid photographs and self portrait works by Kezia Blain and her own mother. The work was commissioned by The Seat is Taken.