For the past year, I have been photographing women and non-binary people in homes in Mparntwe/Alice Springs and having conversations about our collective experiences of labour in the home. We talked about being overworked, about our emotional, domestic and logistical organising capacities being run dry, how we are beyond tired, how it is invisible and how, despite this, we are raging and organising. Our relief in discovering each other, at consoling, supporting and organising with each other is paramount to making it through a life. This image is a tribute to the people who are a balm to these aches, an image to make the invisible visible, and a reminder to all of us that there is work to do.

 

Balm is a commentary on the domestic labour disparity in Australian society. An ongoing tableaux series of images, this work highlights the disproportionate amount of domestic, emotional and logistical labour that women and non-binary people do in relationships. Furthermore, this work depicts how this labour is simultaneously significant and painstakingly monotonous to carry out, particularly as it is commonly done without acknowledgement or renumeration.