The Creation of a Carer,
Digital Photograph, 2016

The Creation of a Carer is an appropriation of the creation of man by Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni. Painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, the space between the hands of God and Adam is the moment before they touch or maybe they never touch. This making of Man is symbolic of social structures and dominates the power of God and man. It is said to be what separates God from man, both represented as masculine, dominant and powerful. God can make man, but man can not make God.

In the Creation of a Carer, the hands are positioned in an offering gesture. The hands are of my maternal Grandmother and mother. My grandmother created my mum, cared for her, and, in turn, handed down the care cycle to my mother and my mother to me. The cyclical nature of care is founded in the matriarchal cross-cultural migrant experience. One that is handed down generationally. The care provided is gestural; it is present in the action of giving. My grandmother’s journey, my mother’s, and mine intertwined to create this moment, this creation of a carer.