Dee Marco
The House of Complaints

Gallery 1, Keyes Art Mile, Johannesburg
November 2023

After Dee Marco conducted a powerful workshop as part of INCCA’s Art After Baby initiative, we included her project The House of Complaints in the exhibition space at Keyes Art Mile. “House of complaints,” explains Marco, “is an invitation to all caregivers and mothers to lay a complaint about any part of their care identities. It is a simple space that emulates my own lounge, a space that is curated with care and openness to invite any story of complaint in… sad, happy, adventurous, depressing, unbelievable, very believable, recognisable, grotesque. The House of Complaints is a home for mothering complaints - stories often lost or forgotten in a caregiver’s mind or in the short years, but long days that constitute the framework for care work for children. The House of Complaints invites us to read complaints by caregivers and mothers as method in itself, allowing for greater fluidity in what it means to care and practise the everyday labour of mothering tasks and the physical and emotional demands that accompany them. The House of Complaints is a growing home, which can never be filled, yet, it moves, wherever it is welcome, for more caregivers and mothers to form part of a collective voice, a cacophony of mothering realities from all around the world.”

Art After Baby was a collaborative project, supported by the National Arts Council South Africa (NAC) Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme (PESP 4).