• HEIDI HOLMES

  • HEIDI HOLMES
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Heidi Holmes

I am woman hear me roar as I push out this Science Baby

2015

Dimensions Variable

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Cycle cycle cycle cycle cycle, Transvaginal Ultrasound Machine, Menopur (ovary stimulating hormone) laced water, pond plants; Hemianthus Callitrichoides, Myriophyllum Papillosum, Thalia Geniculata var. Ruminoides, water pump, interior hosing, bone coloured acrylic paint, flesh coloured acrylic paint, perspex, fibreglass pond liner.

Blood Clot Reproduction, Glass beads, felt, cotton thread, finger light, cloth tape

Used Probe, 40,800 Entries (approx), Transvaginal Ultrasound Probe, Tim’s words, hung at artist’s oral cavity height

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I am a woman. I am an artist. I am 38 years old.

I am without child.

I can’t think of anything else at the moment other than my lack of child.

My insides are curling as I write this.

Because, I am more than my lack of child.

From the exhibition, I am woman hear me roar as I push out this Science Baby in 2015, at BUS Projects, Melbourne, Australia.

Notes:

  • In the centre of the room is a decommissioned Transvaginal Ultrasound Machine. The machine has been gutted and it’s innards replaced with the materials required to turn it into a water feature. The machine now sits in a tub of water, the water flows up it’s base through it’s centre and topples through a slit in the screen, down the front of the exterior of the machine. Over the duration of the exhibition the keyboard and the plastic housing deteriorate from the constant wetness.

  • The water has been tainted with Menopur- an ovary stimulating hormone. The base tub is filled with pond plants and over the duration of the exhibition the plants brown and become limp. The scent of the Menopur is metallic.

  • The base tub has been painted a bone colour on it’s interior and a flesh colour on it’s exterior.

  • On the window sill, in natural light is a beaded replica of blood clot that came from my body post IVF.

  • On entry to the gallery is a decommissioned Transvaginal Ultrasound Probe. It is protruding from the wall at my mouth height. Hung from the probe is a printed piece of writing by my husband, Tim Holmes. It outlines his experience of waiting for me through surgery.

Photo credits: Christo Crocker