Who wants to be like mum and dad?

Who wants to be like mum and dad?

A young family with 3 children in Gothenburg started a gallery at their home. They invited one artist per month to exhibit in their home during one year. The gallery At home was open when the family was there. A calendar was made for the following year with a picture and a description of each artist’s project.

I made a T-shirt to each member of the family to put on whenever a visitor came. On the T-shirts there were a face of me blowing up my cheeks, and the text: Who wants to be like mum and dad?
On their TV I showed a video of an animated heart blowing up and down, in and out. The question on the T-shirt started a discussion between the members of the family. Their six year old daughter said she wanted to be like mum and dad, their eleven year old daughter declared that she wanted to be herself. Their two month old son was busy sucking the breast of his mum. The parents were relating the question to their children and also relating it to their own mother and father.

The members of the family wore the piece and became the actual piece, encompassing the visitors.

During this month the family had many discussions with the visitors about family relationships. The family is very sociable and one could always sit down and get a cup of tea or a glass of wine. There were always people coming in, they perhaps did not know each other very well, or even not at all but they came to talk, and to give advice to each other about personal matters.