SCULPTURE
The Dance (part of the Mothers' Milk series)
The ground of home and identity is never fixed; it is continually shaped through maternal acts of care, repair and remembrance. My series The Dance reflects the tension between maintenance and endurance embedded in motherhood. The work makes visible the psychological weight of quiet, unseen labour - cleaning, tending, holding - that sustains others while remaining socially undervalued. Through privileging domestic materials in my work, I honour discarded objects as witnesses to maternal time. Their irregular presence highlights the politics of the home, gesturing toward imperfect, relentless and enduring acts of care.
Photographed by Tobias Titz
Mothers' Milk
Mothers' Milk draws inspiration from my home and the objects that coexist in this space. The materials used in creating my pieces are remnants of my domestic environment - personal by-products of consumption that are no longer useful commodities. In this way, it critiques a world obsessed with consumption and how this manifests within our homes. While I acknowledge that I am part of this neoliberal society, and my repurposing of these waste materials will not change much, I find pleasure in creating something from waste that is freed from its utilitarian function and no longer holds capitalist value. By transforming these possessions into poetic objects using clay, assemblage, and techniques of slip-casting, and bricolage, I seek to silence their coded histories and underlying connotations, creating new meaning out of what might be considered banal waste and is commonly overlooked. The combination of fired and unfired clay and the juxtaposition of utilitarian objects and handmade vessels serve as a metaphor for the complexities and contradictions found within the domestic realm, as well as society more generally. In my practice, I strive to expose the resilience and fragility of the domestic realm and draw attention to broader social concerns that are often concealed within the comfort of our everyday life.
Jacinta's work Mothers' Milk explores the liminal space between caregiving as an intimate, essential act and its societal undervaluation. It examines the psychological threshold of caregiving’s mental load, where routine tasks shift between monotony and deep significance. By transforming discarded objects, her assemblages engage with material liminality—blurring waste and renewal, utility and poetic resonance.
Other Sculptures
