“Durable power of attorney” is a legal document that transfers the authority to make medical, legal, or financial decisions on another’s behalf. It activates when a person is no longer able to make decisions or care for themselves. Though an administrative designation, the words imply an enduring influence of an emotional political nature. A commitment. Care.
In 2021, Jen Smith moved back to the East Coast to help with her mother’s increasingly erratic behavior. In October 2022, her mother fell down a flight of stairs. Caring for her at home no longer seemed tenable. Placed in a memory care facility later that year, she was diagnosed with advanced dementia. When others learn that Smith’s mother has dementia, often the first response takes some form of “Does she recognize you?” Her mother still has language, a flood of words. Echoed in the text of Smith’s anagram drawing, Nonsense Talk: Does She Recognize You, her mother’s words sometimes connect to a present moment or narrative, to meaning. Sometimes they don’t. “Does she recognize you” is as much nonsense talk as the mother’s random flow of words. Do you still connect? Does she know she is loved?
When Smith’s mother was institutionalized, a camera was installed to monitor her movements and her care. Smith spends several days a week with her mother attending to details not well addressed by staff: laundry, hair, nail care, arranging flowers, and brushing teeth.
The mother is a lifelong singer, active in church and professional choirs. Singing is an impulse and a balm. And now, a strategy for accomplishing tasks. Supporting these activities of daily living with show tunes, there would be moments of joy and engagement, big performances on both their parts. Smith began to save the surveilled footage: part momento, part performance document.
The title of the video, I hate to tell you this but the mother is gone. Or, maybe this is the work. is taken from an oft-repeated phrase that the mother says to Smith. What mother? Is she referring to herself? She seldom connects to herself in that role or Smith as her child, but says it regularly. The mother may be gone, but she is cherished as she is.
Jen Smith (b. 1970, Silver Spring; lives and works in Baltimore) received an MFA from University of California, Irvine and a BA from University of Maryland, College Park. Smith is a feminist, artist, cook, and caretaker. Credited with coining the term “Riot Grrrl,” Smith has played music halls, street protests, and squats. Smith has made posters, zines, albums, cabarets, clothes, and food in collaboration with and for her community for 35 years. Solo exhibitions have been held at Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles (2020, 2016, 2014, 2012, 2010).