Nightshade
Nightshade is a photo media project that delves into themes of family violence and intergenerational trauma exploring my mother’s experiences during her relationship with my father. Over twenty tumultuous years, she endured profound hardship, frequently moving home to escape my father’s stalking, violence, and coersive control. The pattern of domestic violence, marked by my father’s charming public facade, and private cruelty, is symbolised by the black nightshade - an attractive but toxic plant.
Despite the relentless pressure of family care and life instability, my mother found sanctuary and personal power in her passions for gardening and environmental regeneration. Since their separation in the 1980s and my father’s death in a car accident, she has dedicated herself to volunteering in suburban natural bush reserves, tirelessly removing environmental weeds to promote native plant growth. Now in her 90s she maintains a beautiful, meticulously weed-free garden.
This project parallels my mother’s battle against weeds with her resistance to domestic abuse and coercive control. In creating this work, I mimicked my father’s obsessive stalking by tracking environmental weeds in our area and scrutinizing neglected family photographs. My conflicted role as a traumatised witness and confidante to both parents is conveyed through the relationships between contemporary and archival images and documents. Through this process complexity and ambiguity are revealed, aiming to repair a traumatic history.
Artist walk through video HERE
Nightshade website: www.nightshadeproject.cargo.site
Nightshade project on Instagram: ︎
The project, incorporating prints, text, film, installation and archive documents, was first shown during a brief retraction of Melbourne’s long Covid-19 lockdown in October 2020 at Alternating Current Art Space, 248 High St, Windsor.
View video installation HERE