The Mother Project
Marion Facinger Freidson (1915-1993)
In the year my mother would have been 100 years old, I made 100 tiny porcelain busts, all by hand, in the style of ancient Cyclades sculptures but with my mother's distinctive large nose, French twist, and cleft chin. Then over the course of another year, I placed these pieces in public restrooms around the world, together with a little card describing my project. The work was documented contemporaneously on Instagram. My hope was that people who encountered my work would take these tiny sculptures home and contemplate the meaning of family.
Everyone who uses a public restroom leaves a little something behind. My mitochondrial DNA comes from my mother (Marion), and hers from her mother (Leta), and hers from her mother (Ada), and hers from her mother (Edith), and so on. The little army of mothers I made and dispersed are physical representations of where I came from, and where we all come from.
You can track my work on one of my Instagram accounts. Just search for "MarionFacinger" or click here.
#Honorthymother
#theladiesroomproject
#marionfacinger
Everyone who uses a public restroom leaves a little something behind. My mitochondrial DNA comes from my mother (Marion), and hers from her mother (Leta), and hers from her mother (Ada), and hers from her mother (Edith), and so on. The little army of mothers I made and dispersed are physical representations of where I came from, and where we all come from.
You can track my work on one of my Instagram accounts. Just search for "MarionFacinger" or click here.
#Honorthymother
#theladiesroomproject
#marionfacinger
Marion Elizabeth Facinger was born on a farm in Middlefield, Ohio in 1915. She became a nurse and worked in Charity Hospital in New Orleans before joining the army in 1941 to serve in World War II. In the Army Corps of Nurses she was stationed in North Africa and Italy, reaching the rank of Lieutenant. After the war, she entered the University of Chicago on the GI bill and attained her M.A. and Ph.D. in history. Her 1964 doctoral thesis on French queens in the middle ages is still cited as an early feminist work. She married and became a housewife, raising two children, one of whom had special needs. After a divorce in the mid-1960's, she worked as a history professor for a few years before returning to nursing. She worked for decades at Englewood Hospital in Englewood, NJ. She was elected to several terms on the Leonia (NJ) town council where she advocated for environmental issues and against nuclear armaments and war. She loved her family, nature, and intellectual conversation. She was an avid reader, a writer of letters, a gardener, seamstress, baker, birdwatcher, and much beloved by her friends, family, and colleagues. She died too soon in Brooklyn, NY in 1993.
Marion Facinger in Army uniform