Proof of Mother

Proof of Mother is a project rendering cultural methodologies to realize anti-capitalist desire. This project visualizes the challenge of human-money relationships by testing the system of mother. In Heyon Han’s view, the term mother is the only concept known to us that can (or has the possibility to) overcome the cruelty of capitalism and decommodify a body (baby). This observation came from many narratives taught to children, like the story of Rumpelstiltskin and the judgement of King Solomon. These narratives conceal emotional tests that follow an absurd solution promising an unborn child in exchange for enchanted gold or cutting the baby in half, which is reasonable in some perverse way. In her work, these stories are materialized and shifted anew by bringing the test onto different kinds of mothers – mother of earth, mother as creator, mother as an economy, and mother as a system – as a way to organize our society. 

The title Proof of Mother references the fictions we are taught about our mothers. It also references Proof of Work, the security mechanism which is a core technology of Cryptocurrency. Crypto-currency is a carefully chosen subject in this project because it is a substance that most shows how invisible and immaterial our money has become for us. We don’t carry money anymore, not tied on a string, not in a wallet, it’s far from our body somewhere in the cloud. Money has become a fiction. A fiction can be painful, violent, and real. Especially if it has its own narrative that we cannot predict. Proof of Mother tests out what it feels like when fiction becomes more powerful than reality. 

In Proof of Mother, the baby is dead and alive at the same time. There is a cruelty we cannot handle, and a generosity we cannot begin to digest. 

Proof of Mother

Proof of Mother is a project rendering cultural methodologies to realize anti-capitalist desire. This project visualizes the challenge of human-money relationships by testing the system of mother. In Heyon Han’s view, the term mother is the only concept known to us that can (or has the possibility to) overcome the cruelty of capitalism and decommodify a body (baby). This observation came from many narratives taught to children, like the story of Rumpelstiltskin and the judgement of King Solomon. These narratives conceal emotional tests that follow an absurd solution promising an unborn child in exchange for enchanted gold or cutting the baby in half, which is reasonable in some perverse way. In her work, these stories are materialized and shifted anew by bringing the test onto different kinds of mothers – mother of earth, mother as creator, mother as an economy, and mother as a system – as a way to organize our society. 

The title Proof of Mother references the fictions we are taught about our mothers. It also references Proof of Work, the security mechanism which is a core technology of Cryptocurrency. Crypto-currency is a carefully chosen subject in this project because it is a substance that most shows how invisible and immaterial our money has become for us. We don’t carry money anymore, not tied on a string, not in a wallet, it’s far from our body somewhere in the cloud. Money has become a fiction. A fiction can be painful, violent, and real. Especially if it has its own narrative that we cannot predict. Proof of Mother tests out what it feels like when fiction becomes more powerful than reality. 

In Proof of Mother, the baby is dead and alive at the same time. There is a cruelty we cannot handle, and a generosity we cannot begin to digest.