Jess Levey (she/her)
I Know You Have Felt What I'm Feeling Right Now, 2021
Digital Video
7 minutes 6 seconds
I Know You Have Felt What I’m Feeling Right Now, is a socially-engaged, multimedia project concerned with the psychological effects of the constraint of motherhood and the damage created from inequity within the domestic space. The video includes sound fragments from 25 hours of phone conversations with 20 mothers during the pandemic. These voices were rearranged and layered, creating mounting tension as the participants describe their psychological upheaval and their daunting daily tasks during this present crisis. The sound collage is supported by symbolic imagery including a dangling cord, a cracking domestic space, a damaged postpartum body, and the repetition of mundane labor. Between February and August of 2020, mothers of children 12 years old and younger lost 2.2 million jobs. But, as we know, their work did not stop, it merely shifted full time into the home, where even women who normally worked full time jobs were doing the majority of what sociologist Arlene Daniels labeled the “invisible work.” Even before 2020, employed women in heterosexual partnerships were spending 50% more time each day caring for their children than full-time working fathers. Knowing these facts and watching fellow women around me fall apart, I sought to connect with mothers during this intensely isolating and overwhelming time. I listened to them as they voiced their frustrations while we shared stories about our communal struggle. The viewer is asked to reflect on the inner turmoil and emotional upheaval of this collective experience.
@jesslevey.art