Between our visit to London and the on-rush of Christmas we had time for one more conversation with Judith. We compared the works in Home Truths with other works that reveal private interiors: Richard Billingham’s Ray’s a Laugh, Sophie Calle’s Suite Venetienne. Both rely on detachment from the subject. We return to Mary Kelly and the way she offers a view of motherhood seen through the ideas of psychoanalysis.
Towards the end of the conversation, as other duties are making all three of us feel we should conclude, Judith says ‘I don’t think your work has anything to do with the psychoanalytic approach. It’s more like the 1970’s feminist ideas about domestic equality. You’re trying to find a way to work and parent and make work that doesn’t put one of you ahead of the other.’ She says this as if it’s been on her mind for some time, as if she’s been meaning to tell us.
This commentary on what we’re doing is invaluable. It’s a considered statement, arrived at after several months. It’s informed, but it’s also from outside; it’s not an understanding we could arrive at between the two of us.
As Judith is leaving she tells us she’d like to write something about our practice and theories of the everyday. ‘I’ll give some dog-walking time to it.’ Later she explains that this is a precious part of the day: time when she is away from all other distractions, walking for half an hour, able to pursue an idea without interruption.
