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Domestic Fetish
June 2025
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Esther Birch, Terrace
"I went twice! It really spoke to me as a feminist."
Barbara Riley, Victoria BC
"This exhibit should travel the country!!! The world !!!"
Joan Tureki, Terrace
"Such a powerful relevant story told with empathy and humour. go see it during June!"
Catherine Hart Art
Paintings and Found Art Objects
I am an artist living in Northern British Columbia who is inspired by everyday injustices. l create art that affects people emotionally using appealing found objects, colour and humor. My goal is always to illicit a tear or a gut punch reaction from the viewer.
Domestic Fetish 2025
This exhibit explores how domestic labour, caregiving expectations, and ideals of femininity have shaped the lives of women through generations. I wanted to expose the hypocracy of the emergence of the 'Trad Wife' aesthetic at a time when women's right are being clawed back around the world.
Obedient
A vintage dress makes dummy represents the traditional role of women in the patriarchy.
The arms and hands are fashioned from whisks, and hold a vacuum hose ready to tidy up fabric pieces embroidered with the rights women have fought for such as: equal pay, abortion rights, rape laws, and anti discrimination laws to name a few.
The figure is headless to represemt the lack of autonomy in the life of a trade wife.
there are buttons covering the vacuum, symbolic of the unacknowledged labour of women.
Carrots from Saskia's Garden
The paintings in this exhibit represent the social media of a trad wife who struggles to achieve the expectations of a stay at home wife. these carrots while bountiful, fall short of the ideal; a weed caught in the harvest & a plastic colander used instead of a metal one.
Gutted
This fish, eviserated and ready to bake is symbolic of how women in traditional are stripped of their autonomy and must serve others.
Behave
The birthday cake represents the countless hours women spend on family events and celebrations. They are taught from a young age that caring for the emotional needs of others is their duty.
Women who refuse to behave are a danger to the patriarchy, they are silenced and punished.
Short Changed
Candies from your mom or grand,mothers purse may seem like a treat, but upon closer inspection one will realize that they've been duped. Traditional roles for women are a trap. The candy labels tell the tale; chattel, slave, and baby machine label the sweets.
Devolution
In this piece, the trad wife has cut fabric from the uniforms on the clothes line to fashion an apron.
This shows how the glorification of the trade wife ideal is destroying the strides made to have equal right in the workplace.
Retirement Dinner
the meal on the china plate is comprised entirely of buttons. After sacrificing earning years raising a family, traditional wives are often cast aside and must live in poverty. The only pension they have is a collection of buttons in a jar from caring for a family, and a set of old china passed down from previous generations of women.
Recipes For Disaster
Carved into the rolling pin are the words Recipes for Disaster. The recipe tin has been smashed and spilling out are recipes that have been passed down for generations; matrimonial squares, wedding soup, and engagement chicken to name a few. These 'recipes' reperesent the lie women have told their daughters; that serving men is their higher purpose.
in this mobile, the recipes read like sarcastic takes on the actual recipes.
Hot Line
Visitors to the exhibition are encouraged to lift the handset & upon doing so, will hear a blood curdling scream representing the collective rage felt by women when they realize that they have been duped by the patriarchy into sacrificing their autonomy.
Marriage
The cars in this piece are packed in tightly , making an escape impossible. Without laws protecting women and providing child support, women are trapped in marriages with no way to escape.
Tub Talk
It is at this point in the exhibition that the trad wife has stolen time away to be alone with her thoughts and contemplate her fate.
When raising a family often the only time a mother has to herself is while bathing.
Dutch Oven
This painting depicts the daily drudgery of a trad wife.
Her reflection is visible on the lid of the Dutch oven. When she sees this is she feeling trapped?
Dick's
Buttons figure largely in this exhibit. They represent the unpaid and unseen labour of generations of women in the patriarchy.
In the patritiarchy, women are left in old age with nothing to show from a lifetime of caring for their families except a jar of buttons; symbols of hours of tending to and caring for children and spouses. A poor substitute for a pension.
Unmade Bed
Here we get a peek into the psych of the trad wife. She is failing at adhering to the patriarchal ideal of homemaking. This symbolizes the beginning of her rebellion and her enlighttenent.
Laundry on the Line
This painting depicts an idyllic domestic scene, but upon further inspection, it does not live up to the trad wife aesthetic.
The grass is unkept, the socks are dingy and the garden is subpar. i wanted to portray how perfecting homemaking is an unachievable goal.
Whoopsie
This painting shows how the trad wife is starting to crumble under the weight of the expectations placed upon her by the patriarchy. It also symbolizes wasted potential and the loss of innocence when the damage the patriarchy has done is revealled.
Laundry Basket
The laundry basket overflowing in a room where the window outside reveals sunny day, this demonstrates the confinent and isolation that women feel when living a trad wife existence
“This exhibit should travel the country!!!The world!!! ."
Wrapped
Once again the trade wife is falling short of expectations. She has picked the huckleberrys but rather than make jam in pretty jars, she puts them in plastic bags to freeze.
The imagery evokes the sense of
how women feel like they can never measure up to the standards set for a traditional wife.
Radishes with Salt
this still life shows a simple dish with radishes and a bowl of salt . This shows how the simple daily tasks of feeding a family are acts of love . The salt is the bitter realization that a man in a traditional patriarchial marriage feels entitled to this act.
Kiwis and Lemons
The kiwis and lemons do not belong in an egg carton. Similarily, women who find themselves in a traditional role feel like they are not living a life of fullfillemnt due to a lack of autonomy.
Bird Cage
In a bird cage made from whisks and a tart pan, there sits a ceramic bird pepper shaker with buttons as the litter on the bottom of the cage. The symbol of a cged bird is a classic depiction of loss of autonomy. The buttons represnt how a patriarchial society values womens labour.
Coming January 2027
Toys for the Tender-Hearted
A series of of found object sculptures using vintage toys to examine how patriarchy shapes boys -teaching them to supress 'feminine' expressions. What first appears playful and nostalgic, reveals a darker story about how patriarshy can wound men as much as it privilidges them.
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