Synopsis

Synopsis

I became inspired by my friend’s experience of becoming a teenaged mum.  I went out with her when she was visibly pregnant during the day in town and to my surprise I noticed people giving her judgemental looks and I was aware that this is the time that she needed the most support and kindness. Once the baby was born my friend spoke to me about negative reactions that she got from strangers on the street. She felt isolated due to these reactions that she was getting. I believe that this fits in with the theme of hidden Nottingham as it seems like teenaged pregnancies are unappreciated and uncelebrated unlike the pregnancies of older mums. Also this fits with my project as I am putting forward the idea of my friend as a hidden heroine because I believe that she has dealt with being a teenaged mum well and I think she deserves people to know this which is why I am pleased to be taking this project as an opportunity to share it with you all now.

I decided to make two contrasting pieces of work in order to show everyone what the majority of people think about teenaged mums and their babies as being neglected. I have produced another piece based on my admiration of my friend and I would like to share this and try and change people’s opinions and reactions to teenaged mums so that they can provide support instead of negativity.  My intention was to make the negative baby grow look horrendous which is why I chose to scar it using stitching and to stain it. My aim in doing this was to encourage the viewers to reflect and to realise what these negative looks and comments imposes onto the mum. In contrast I decided to make one that I thought reflected my friend’s role of a teenaged mum by embroidering the outline of a gold trophy as an award. I decided to make it so that it was not too personal and so that it could apply to any teenaged mum and provide them with a sense of place and support. However I decided that in order to also make it personal to my friend’s story I could display the two frames on a wall in a gallery and play recordings of my friend talking about her life in the same room on repeat.