Dominique Haller was born and raised in Switzerland. She obtained an MA in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Basel, Switzerland, and worked as a documentary filmmaker in Switzerland, France, and the U.S for several years. After immigrating to the United States in 2009, she attended graduate school at the University of Wisconsin – Madison Department of Art, where she shifted her practice to sculpture and installation. She graduated with an MFA in Art in 2014. Most recently, she has shown her work at ACRE Projects in Chicago and at the ArtHelix Gallery in Brooklyn, New York.
Dominique Haller
Statement
My work is concerned with the tension between Mothering and Motherhood. I define Mothering as a practice rooted in affective and physical labor that cleanses the social environment of harmful sentiments and substances. Mothering is not restricted by sex or gender. It is radical and empathetic. In contrast, Motherhood is a set of normative performances that are expected of women who bear and raise children. It is usually framed within sentimental language and imagery. The abrasive potential of the pressures between Mothering and Motherhood constitute the focal point of my work. I’m attentive to the role of language within this curious structure and display the language of Motherhood to make it visible as a marker of ideology. My work aims to expose the material, affective, and sociological condition Motherhood and strives to translate the untidy business of Mothering into physical form. It combines disfavored materials originating in the domestic realm with textures that are reminiscent of the pliable, permeable, and fluid nature of embodied human experience.
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