Eleanor Shipman
MUMMY / mummy limited edition of 100
2025
The edition is a bespoke lanyard Eleanor Shipman originally created as part of a research project at The University of Bristol called Empowering Parents in Higher Education by Dr Jenny Crane and Dr Erika Hanna. Shipman facilitated a 6 month series of workshops with parents who work at the university to investigate, share and visualise their experiences through collage, assemblage, poetry and installation. This process resulted in a project zine called M/OTHERS IN THE INSTITUTION, this bespoke lanyard Mummy / MUMMY and a public artwork called NOW YOU SEE US which is on display at Senate House in Bristol. . The lanyard Mummy / MUMMY was the most important output to the artist from this social practice project. Participants were gifted these lanyards to wear as part of their daily attire, blurring the lines between the multiple hats we take on and off between personal and professional lives. In literally labelling participants as mothers, the piece aims to continue the vital conversations we began in the research workshops around how we share our identities as parents in public and feel seen in work environments. It asks, where do we: draw boundaries, gain support, build community, make connections, share vulnerabilities, offer care, change policies? In producing this work as a new limited edition of 100, this lanyard will now live in different personal and professional environments, continuing it's prompt to reflect on how we define motherhood, and make visible the hidden labour of parents as an ongoing social practice project.
Bespoke lanyard in silver foiled presentation box. Once your order has been placed and paid for you will be allocated the edition number based on availability and the order will be shipped.
About artist
Eleanor Shipman (b. 1989) is a visual and participatory artist based in Bristol. Her practice explores the complexities of birth and m/otherhood, hidden labour in industrial and domestic creation, and existential concerns surrounding climate collapse. Informed by social practice, her multidisciplinary approach – spanning public art, textiles, sculpture and collage – invites participation through design, process, and form. Taking part in her work could involve: sharing placenta-shaped cake to reflect on birth; writing redactive poetry using university policies on parenting; spinning a wall of hourglasses on the sustainability of sand; or donating quilts to charity shops, which unknowingly become sculptures. Eleanor’s work honours the labour embedded in interconnected materials and objects, often reassembling them into new narratives. Her practice creates space for meaningful conversation and aims to embed small forms of legacy – gifts back to those involved, reflections on research, changes to policy, informing public spaces.
£100.00
Limited edition by Eleanor Shipman
