Covered in Cares

Covered in Cares is a collaborative photographic‑textile work that seeks to visualise the invisible labour of mothers. The project began with a survey listing nearly a hundred tasks required for a household and family to function. Each mother’s responses were translated into a personalised mental‑load map, organised into nine colour‑coded categories of workload. I then visited them in their daily routines, observing what they were doing in that exact moment and photographing them in their real environments. Onto each portrait, we embroidered their mental‑load map directly over their bodies. The more they do, the less we see. In this tension between visibility and invisibility, the photograph reveals who they are, while the embroidery gently obscures them, reflecting how care work is simultaneously ever‑present and yet so often unseen.

 

The two images below present a complete mental‑load map alongside the detailed tasks from the survey, serving as reference points for the project.

It extends beyond the artwork into an exhibition of the same name, where the meanings of “Covered” and “Cares” unfold physically and emotionally. Covered speaks to both the portrait literally being covered by embroidery and the overwhelming responsibilities mothers carry. Cares, in its plural form, reflects caregiving tasks as well as the emotional weight behind them. The exhibition presents four embroidered portraits. Each caption describes what the mothers were doing in that moment, paired with quotes from their interviews.

 

“One time we went to a toy shop, my daughter saw a broom and said, ‘Oh! That is mummy!’”

 

“Being a mother has no job description”

Year

2026

 

Teammate
Riddick Douglas Ning

Naina Pai
Audrey Piedfort
Ellie Zagorianakou

 

Exhibited in
Covered in Cares, 2026, Side Studio, London