Eti Wade
Mother Artist
Nuclear 2004-2005
Nuclear 1.0 2004-2005
I started photographing families in East Finchley in 2004. In Nuclear 1.0 I invited everyone over to mine, asked them to sit on my sofa and fired the shutter of my large, imposing 5X4 camera. It was an event, refreshments were being offered in the kitchen and I called each family over to the living room, one at a time. I offered little explanation, and did not attempt to ordering or control the arrangement of family members on the sofa. When entering the room, I introduced the family to the sofa (draped with a neutral light fabric and neutral coloured wall behind them in effect, a blank canvas) and the families, upon seeing the familiar structure of a sofa, and despite the somewhat unfamiliar surroundings, fell into an arrangement of bodies on the sofa. The ways in which the families arranged themselves on the sofa may give insight into everyday television viewing arrangements, there may be a preference for comfort and a soft warm familiar maternal or paternal body on behalf of a child, or we might see the mimicking a pose of an older sibling by a younger adoring little brother or sister, or possibly certain family members keeping as far away from a disapproving parent after a recent family row. The neutrality of the background leaves very few clues for the audience and all that is left are the bodies and faces on the sofa and the knowledge that these people are family.
Nuclear, MArtin Primary School families book
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