Every Home Should Have One

"MOTHER"

By Judy Olausen, Penguin Books Ltd, 1996
ISBN 0 14 026362 4

Phew. Well it sure would be nice to escape those ideas about 'perfect womanhood' wouldn't it?

Thankfully, photographer Judy Olausen has set out to do just that.
Mother has a very serious message. A refutation of the 1950's conception of ideal womanhood, it uses the imagery of those times to expose the oppressive reality beneath, creating a surreal, Lynchesque world in which the titular Mother is put through various trials and tribulations in order to live up to the serious task of being the perfect woman. As Olausen explains, "I wanted younger women to see how far we've come - and to see that we didn't always have the options that we have now."
(see "How to be a Super Secretary.")

All that serious stuff aside though, essentially this is a book full of really funny photos of somebody's mother in fantastic poses.

And if you close your eyes a little and squint you can pretend it's your mother! Utterly Brilliant!

"Mommy Deerest"

And so much of it is still so relevant to many peoples lives today.

My mother for example, was renowned for packing the car (an early 1980's sedan - this was before station wagons really got to New Zealand) with 5 children and all our luggage for a three week vacation. Obviously she was a stowage genius, but even she never concieved of tying someone to the roof like a hunting trophy! (At least I don't think she did, and it probably wouldn't have been her up there... probably it would be my elder brother, but hey, even if it was me it couldn't be worse than having to sit on the hump!)

"Mother as Doormat"

Seem Familiar?

What makes the whole enterprise even more remarkable, however, is the discovery that the model featured in every photograph is, in fact, the photographer's mother, Vivian Olausen.
Taking her mother's picture ("Mother as Angel") one day for a local gallery mother-themed show, Judy realised Vivien's talent as a model. "I realised she has what photographers call a 'rubber face,'" she explains.

During the shooting of the series, Vivian was "flown, shorn, set on fire, squeezed into bald caps, tied to the roof of a Plymouth Volare, and strapped under a boulder", tasks she performed with good humour and enthusiasm.

"People watching us doing these things think I'm being tortured by an oddball," she says. "But we laugh our heads off. We're closer than bark on a tree." (Err, yes quite!)

Wow. I bet I'd never get away with doing stuff like that to my mother. Really it's every daughters dream...

As the Orange County Register proclaims on the back, "Quite simply the must-have Mother's Day present."

The perfect way to bring a dose of reality to the long-suffering martyr in your family.

Sorry Mum...!