Familiars is a closed-circuit, monthly artist mother digest. Artist mothers are invited to participate, and the rule is that in order to receive the issue, you have to submit to it.
Artist Statement: Familiars is a conceptual art project rooted in the rejection of traditional social media paradigms and the commercialization of artistic communities. The project arose from a desire to create an authentic, interactive platform that redefines the relationship between artist and audience. In an age where "community" is often conflated with "audience" and co-opted by content creators as a transactional term, Familiars seeks to reclaim and reimagine what community means for artists.
At its core, Familiars rejects the ephemeral nature of algorithm-driven engagement and instead fosters sustained, meaningful interactions. Participants are required to contribute actively in order to remain part of the community, blurring the lines between artist and audience. This reciprocal model challenges the passive consumption prevalent in digital spaces, inviting participants to engage with the intersection of art, motherhood, and collective creation.
The lineage of Familiars can be traced to the practices of conceptual artists who interrogate systems and structures through their work. Inspired by Lenka Clayton's open-source "An Artist Residency in Motherhood," Familiars adopts a similar ethos of reframing the constraints of motherhood and domestic life as fertile ground for creative exploration. Clayton’s anti-elite residency highlighted the potential for daily life to become an artist’s studio, a concept that resonates deeply with Familiars' integration of personal, artistic, and communal practices.
Additionally, Familiars draws from the traditions of mail art and relational aesthetics, echoing the work of artists such as Ray Johnson and Mierle Laderman Ukeles. Johnson’s New York Correspondence School exemplified the power of exchange and collaboration outside institutional frameworks, while Ukeles’s "Maintenance Art" elevated the labor of care and daily life to the level of artistic practice. Like these predecessors, Familiars challenges hierarchies and the commodification of creative labor by centering care, collaboration, and mutual support.
Through its structure, Familiars serves as a quiet rebellion against the commodification of creativity, offering an alternative framework for artistic connection. It underscores the radical potential of small, intentional communities to resist the flattening effects of social media and mass culture. By fostering a space where participation is both a privilege and a responsibility, Familiars invites its members to reimagine the possibilities of collective art-making and the role of community in creative practice.
In creating Familiars, I seek to situate this project within the broader discourse of conceptual art, while also addressing contemporary concerns about authenticity, labor, and connection in the digital age. It is an evolving experiment, one that reflects the complexities and contradictions of its participants while remaining steadfast in its commitment to rejecting the shallow metrics of virality for something much deeper: the intimate, enduring ties of a true artistic community.