Rebekah Mei examines motherhood and the art of letting go.
INTRODUCTION WRITTEN BY BRI STOKES, Interview by LilIANA Epps
Photography by Amber Salik
Level Ground staff artist Rebekah Mei—a mother, sister, daughter, activist and familial archivist—is in an active state of creative unification. Unification, that is, in the linkages between lineage and domestic life, matriarchy and art, and feminine labor and motherhood.
Through her art practice, Rebekah has found new ways of folding herself into the landscape of the matriarchal world, which she discusses below with fellow staff artist Liliana Epps at her home in Echo Park.
Seated on her balcony, overlooking a view of the Los Angeles skyline as Rebekah molded pieces of clay (and was later joined by her four-year-old, Ziggy, giving life to the connection between motherhood and art in real-time), the two discussed the roles of femmes and matriarchs in relation to the realms of creation, death, growth and release.
This conversation has been edited and shortened for clarity.
"To accept that my art has a mind of its own let's me be more free with what I make."
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"To accept that my art has a mind of its own let's me be more free with what I make." 〰️
Lily Epps: So, Rebekah, I'm so curious to know—what is your art practice?
Rebekah Mei: I think the best way to describe my art practice in its current form is a matriarchal art practice. I think of that as using the things in domestic and everyday life to create something new, whether that's in your dynamics with people, or if it's in creating food, or if it's in creating things that nourish people in other ways. I'm also really into doing ceramic works right now. Other forms of art that really interest me are textiles and collage, and weaving different materials together in ways that women and matriarchs have done for a long time.
Lily Epps: Do you have any pieces or people that come to mind that inspire you in this work?
“I had never really minded the feminized labor role of caretaking… before I had a baby.”
Rebekah Mei: I'm really inspired by quilts and grandmothers in general, and just the handiwork and craftiness of grannies. I’m inspired by Käthe Kollwitz, who made a lot of artwork depicting the sorrow of mothers whose children died. I think that is really powerful and profound, and not often the viewpoint with which people view death—what it's like to be the person that brings life into the world, and then spends your entire life nurturing it and trying to prevent death at every turn, and then acknowledging that you have no control over that very real scenario that will happen for everyone.
Lily Epps: What role does motherhood play within community?
Rebekah Mei: I view being a mother and a caretaker in general as having the needs and experiences of other people, that are different from your own, at the forefront of your brain at any given time. That type of caretaking role is very feminized. A lot of people who would be very talented in giving care, but were not raised in a feminized way, are not going to see this kind of labor as an appropriate avenue for them to use their skills and abilities. And people who have been raised in that way are kind of pigeon-holed into doing this specific work.
"I'm really inspired by quilts and grandmothers in general."
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"I'm really inspired by quilts and grandmothers in general." 〰️
Lily Epps: How much do you enjoy caretaking, and what's the other percentage that you're like, ‘Oh, this is so annoying, because this is kind of who I know I'm supposed to be’?
Rebekah Mei: I think a big percentage. Early on, what made it feel hard for me was becoming a biological mother to somebody. I had never really minded the feminized labor role of caretaking… before I had a baby. Afterwards, it felt like I did not have a choice. It was just sort of assumed that was my role at home with this baby in particular. That made me start to view myself in a different way, as someone who had less agency and less choice. But moving through my own view of myself as a parent and as a caregiver and as a mother, and sort of making choices in my own life that have helped me to feel more agency and independence, that has brought me back to a place of feeling joy from caretaking again.
Lily Epps: Do you think being a parent has greatly changed your relationship with art?
Rebekah Mei: Yeah, I think so. I was a lot more attached to what I made, literally. The things that I made with my hands were my babies. So, to have my body create something in a similar way—and to have no control over it. To accept that it has a mind of its own, it has a body of its own, that is letting me be a lot more free and giving with the art that I make.