"Magic" Memories (2023).

“Magic” Memories, (2023).

An interplay of family, labour, and self-representation through the family archive. Glimpsing into the lives of working-class women, capturing moments where the boundaries between private and public spheres blur, where the personal becomes inseparable from waged work.

Drawing from my family archives where the photographs predominately depict women - in this instance, my mother, grandmother, and myself - all engaged in various forms of labour. These images, taken to be cheerful mementoes, often by men, reveal a deeper narrative about the realities of working-class life. Rather than documenting leisure and joy, our family album is a testament to continuous toil and the facade of happiness maintained for respectability.

Each photograph is a complex blend of genuine smiles and underlying exhaustion. These images encapsulate the dual reality of women expected to display contentment while shouldering the burdens of the unrelenting productive and reproductive labour they/we do. Challenging the traditional notion of family albums as repositories of private moments, for us, work, and family life is intertwined, with snapshots of labour representing significant familial bonds and shared work experiences.

“Magic” Memories is not a romantic homage to working-class women's resilience and fortitude but a critique that sheds light on their uncelebrated contributions and the performances they navigate daily. It invites viewers to reconsider the narratives within their family albums and the broader societal implications of class and labour in portraying familial history. Transforming ordinary snapshots into a commentary on the intersection of work, family, and identity, visualising the unseen labour that forms the backbone of many families' stories.