Messy and Maternal

Abstract

This is an imperfect living document about the beginnings of Joan Johnson, and what she and I hope to achieve together. Joan Johnson, born out of the Covid-19 Pandemic of 2020, is a white femme Southern New Yorker in need of community. Joan started on YouTube, hoping to engage with an audience that could only happen upon her. Her ramblings into expectations of quarantine life, to past relationships, and thoughts on death she placed out into the vague openness of the internet. YouTube is not always an easy place to hear the voices of others in relation to one's own thoughts... she recognised the need to move to another platform. In moving to Ardsley New York in July 2020, she documents her reality through polaroids and social media posts. The topics covered mainly surround the medium choices of the Joan Johnson project, and how they hope to both bring her to life, make her multidimensional. We use physical and intangible mediums, the photo album, a book in progress, and social media performance. The format also addresses the unfinished nature of her and our collective existence even while apart. This experiment intends to lead onward to a larger discourse about growth through parenting, as there is no official form to declare one a sound caretaker of another human being... and probably never will be. This space will engage in the dreams of collaborating through the personal experiences of others, as most have experienced guardians, caretakers or other parental figures who have provided examples of what to and not to do. Joan is an example of an existence, a refusal that people are set in their ways and are incapable of learning, growing or having varied realities that do not mesh with monolithic assumptions.