In/Fertile Scrolls

In/Fertile Scrolls
BARREN | STERILE | SUB-FERTILE | INFERTILE | (IN)FERTILE | (IN) FERTILE | SUB-MATERNAL
Fragmented inscription, reproduced on till rolls (without matrix)

Feed Residency, Ikon Gallery
Work in Progress
(June-July 2024)


In/fertile Scrolls was made painstakingly letter by letter in transfer text. This piece traces the historical discursive evolution of infertility through to new cultural interpretations today. Metaphors of barren and sterile sat alongside contemporary medical words of infertility and sub-fertility, as well as experimental linguistic constructions like sub-maternal. The ordering of reproductive meaning is questioned by the voices of my research project contributors, using conversational and correspondence-style narrative from the fertility forum space.

These were produced for the last part of my artist residency with Feed at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham. With me absented from the space for the exhibition display, these were placed in a museum like vitrine, harking back to birthing rolls - a medieval textual amulet that protects the woman in pregnancy and labour that i had observed closely during my placement at the Wellcome Collection. Words written on both sides of these, to be read, believed and embodied, on a surface that physically wraps around and interacts with the woman’s visibly pregnant body as it rubs away the text away in time, alerted me to the infertile body who cannot take up this space and is frequently unable to make any visible impression.

Using this as a material template, but now presented on a receipt roll, they become weighted with connotations of production, value and worth - un/reproductive scrolls...in/fertile rolls. Its manufacture to roll up small so it can be placed about the person, keeping those reassuring words close when they are needed most, to me, also had resonances with the fertility forum’s words ever present on your pocketed mobile phone.




In/Fertile Scrolls
BARREN | STERILE | SUB-FERTILE | INFERTILE | (IN)FERTILE | (IN) FERTILE | SUB-MATERNAL
Fragmented inscription, reproduced on till rolls (without matrix)

Feed Residency, Ikon Gallery
Work in Progress
(June-July 2024)


In/fertile Scrolls was made painstakingly letter by letter in transfer text. This piece traces the historical discursive evolution of infertility through to new cultural interpretations today. Metaphors of barren and sterile sat alongside contemporary medical words of infertility and sub-fertility, as well as experimental linguistic constructions like sub-maternal. The ordering of reproductive meaning is questioned by the voices of my research project contributors, using conversational and correspondence-style narrative from the fertility forum space.

These were produced for the last part of my artist residency with Feed at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham. With me absented from the space for the exhibition display, these were placed in a museum like vitrine, harking back to birthing rolls - a medieval textual amulet that protects the woman in pregnancy and labour that i had observed closely during my placement at the Wellcome Collection. Words written on both sides of these, to be read, believed and embodied, on a surface that physically wraps around and interacts with the woman’s visibly pregnant body as it rubs away the text away in time, alerted me to the infertile body who cannot take up this space and is frequently unable to make any visible impression.

Using this as a material template, but now presented on a receipt roll, they become weighted with connotations of production, value and worth - un/reproductive scrolls...in/fertile rolls. Its manufacture to roll up small so it can be placed about the person, keeping those reassuring words close when they are needed most, to me, also had resonances with the fertility forum’s words ever present on your pocketed mobile phone.