The website Parenting is Political was designed by Rob Janes (in consultation with Ziga Testen) was commissioned by Kym Maxwell.
It was produced in 2016 and was held on a private server for 3 years before being taken down in 2019. It had a number of drop down menus that revealed the works of 4 additional artists Peter Tyndall, Anastasia Klose, Aurelia Guo and Angela Breenan. A key feature of the website ws the static right panel that were clickable to reveal the feature works on the left of the artists. The website could be transitioned from black to white. The website was maintained online adjacent to the show Parenting is Political held at Bus Project, Feb 3rd - 20th. The physical exhibition consisted on a series of chalkboards by Kym Maxwell and a painting by Angela Brennan, ‘Self-portrait (1998)’.
(Artist’s Statement 2025) The website was commissioned to support what I felt was a limited dialogue within a live temporary exhibition. I felt the virtual, reliable and consistent presence of onlime platforms could communicate more the diverse connections and conversations of parenting politics that can be communicated through digital atmospheres.
PLEASE CLICK ON THE WEBSITE IMAGES BELOW TO GAIN A PERSPECTIVE OF THE WEBSITE
Artist’s Statement (from 2016) ONLINE PRESENCE
Parenting is Political
This is a knowledge you’re forced into
It’s not a soft knowledge, but a forced knowing …
My intention for this show and online platform is to reduce the perception of parenting as purely child rearing. I always found this definition to be so exclusive. I want to include a discourse addressing parenting’s slippages outside of the family unit - to include other tensions that exist through its stem concept: that of a caring relationship. As such, the parenting to which I am referring to here is not confined only to the notion of childhood development, it is also the raising of the elderly, the infirm, the animal, the student, the teacher, the plant and the community and the selection of economies, disciplines and resources that support it. In so doing I am made aware of how social forces competing (for growth and attention) may encourage the authoritarian — power of the parental
Parenting is Governance
In order to dig deeper into a topic that is contemporary as well as timeless I bring you an online objective definition. One that is pinpointed by an immediate diaspora of artists I invite to contribute. As I reflect on my own and others research (online) I am grateful for my exposure to varied ties and tensions.
I thank Aurelia Guo for her poetic communiqué (with herself and others) delivered through her text ‘natureisnotnaturalandcanneverbenaturalised.pdf’ (2016); Anastasia Klose for her jarring exposé into capitalism and the dynamics of a family education in ‘Together’ (2011); Peter Tyndall’s building of perceptual frameworks through his graphic, a family’s visit to the gallery; and Angela Brennan for her painting, which represents her speech and radical parenting style — to ‘just be’.
My own, in gallery research (presented at Bus Project — Melbourne) is subjective. It includes a series of chalkboards and hand held collages, which define parenting’s politics under six key themes:
Corruption, fear
Governance, surveillance
Sibling/social conflict
The inexplicable family unit
Aesthetics, form, beauty
Education
I would like to thank Ziga Testen and Rob Janes for their talent and contribution to this exhibition as they construct the online platform, which is in on-going dialogue with this show and Mel Deerson for her continued support and text editing.
Kym Maxwell
