The exhibition troubles our understanding of home as a site of safety and comfort by situating the viewer within an interior in which everything functional is made dysfunctional and every surface rejects and distorts the body.
Touching upon themes of identity, tradition, dissociation, and abuse, Traditionally Unnurturing Nurture features a series of sculptural works made from objects found in a typical household: mirrors, window frames, bed slats, carpets. The functionality of these familiar objects, however, is purposefully twisted: the bathroom mirror is broken and partially transparent, revealing its intimate contents; the bathroom shag rug is infested with sunflower seed shells; the bedroom carpet is encrusted with acupressure spike mats (impossibly painful to lay on but wonderful for blood flow). But as Akhmetova attests, these violent modifications are done always “out of love.”
Mirrored and reflective surfaces feature prominently in the works. Within the exhibition, viewers catch themselves and others reflected in the trappings of home, forced to relive Lacan’s mirror stage by registering or failing to register their own reflection. The effect is a splintering of the self, a hyper awareness of appearance and presence. Traditionally Unnurturing Nurture extends its arms, welcoming its guests just close enough to give them a good slap—perhaps too out of love.