California Civil Code 43.3

California Civil Code Section 43.3
by M.A.M.A., (Mother Artists Making Art), 1998.
(18” x 18” x 18”) Materials: Wooden box, videotape/DVD speakers, mp3, monitor.
Outdoor video installation originally installed on a public bench at One Colorado retail district in Old Town Pasadena, CA. Also exhibited Arena 1 Gallery, Santa Monica and Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art, Chaffey College, CA.

​The title refers to a California law enacted in 1998 to protect a woman’s right to breastfeed in public.

The founding members of M.A.M.A. (Mother Artists Making Art), were Athena Kanaris, Lisa Mann, Karen Schwenkmeyer, and Lisa Schoyer, with backgrounds in photography, film, installation, writing, dance, and performance.

The collaborative group of mother-artists was formed to support each other in salvaging, theorizing, and representing through our artworks, our experience of being mothers, especially in teasing out those experiences which are invisible or taboo in terms of the norms (for example the sensual possibilities of pregnancy, breast feeding and the relation of mother and child, are taboo in this culture.) It is these unspoken experiences which are in danger of being buried and forgotten. 

In her book, Feminist Art and the Maternal, Andrea Liss wrote about this work: 

​[M.A.M.A.] created a box resembling a child's block painted with images of animals nursing their young and positioned this curious object on a bench located in the open-air mall. Sounds of an infant's insistent cry emanated from the box. Curious shoppers who opened the lids of the box encountered a video monitor showing images of mothers breastfeeding and an audio text of M.A.M.A. members describing their feelings and ideas about the act in which they were engaged. The group videotaped many unsuspecting viewers and their responses to this installation. 

Feminist Art and the Maternal, Andrea Liss, 2008. See ppgs 75-79   Downloadable pdf

​Click here for review in Art Pulse by Michol Hebron