This is a work in progress, exploring my individual and collective relationship with care.
Our neo-liberalist, individualistic society is organised through economic structures that overshadow and confine people to relying on a system that claims care at its core, while often actualising neglect to those who need care, and burnout to those who give care. Within the UK’s current care system, 59% of unpaid carers are women (Census 2021), and when carers are paid, it is “£76.75 per week (2023/24) for a minimum of 35 hours. It is the lowest benefit of its kind. In the UK, 977,506 carers were in receipt of Carer’s Allowance in 2022 (X-Stat Explore (retrieved in Feb 2022)."
As queer communities build care networks and mutual aid groups grow, we know we can look to our own community organising to build the care networks we need, and begin to change our relationship with care into a joyful, public, un-ashamed act.
My experiences growing up working class as a young, unpaid part-time carer have shaped my relationship with care throughout my life, and in this project I explore liquid symbols that represent my history with care, using fluids that are everyday, yet private - like care work. Milk; for the maternal expectation of care, bleach; for domestic work, and urine; because, I'm **ssed off!
