NURSE
2006-7

I’m trying to move an understanding of Filipina nurses beyond predictable clichés into something deeper and stranger. The multiple narratives of gender, subservience, power, care-giving, and immigration, (as well as having a mother who is one of these nurses) inform the work.

The drawings are on simple green paper that evokes a sort of standardized institutional quality, like in a hospital. The nurses are outlined in black ink, with only their uniforms heightened with white ink, rendering them more or less invisible outside of the professional function they perform. They’re situated or suspended in vague, liminal spaces, and are often interacting with some sort of dough-y “goo” which seems to function as both flesh and border. In looking at my mother’s work-photos of wounds and sores, I’ve been struck by the visceral nature of something that is supposed to be inside of you staying relentlessly outside of you, unclosed.

The videos exist slightly apart from the drawings, although they’re clearly related. They’re more like studies: I provided uniforms to two young women from families with nurses, set up some simple tableaux, then had them improvise their own narratives. What ended up coming through after editing is a consistent, if goofy series of transgressions; actions that move these nurses outside of pious service and into a more absurdist, rebellious place: what women might do to entertain themselves off-duty, horsing around, being “bad”.