MOTHERLOAD by Hannah Brontë

Artist, DJ and doula Hannah Brontë’s exhibition MOTHERLOAD will seep into your cells and flood your mainframe with blooms of serotonin.

In this new multimedia work commissioned for the Multi-Arts Pavilion, mima (MAP mima), Brontë takes us on a journey to a place where technology helps us heal, soften, and explore.

Brontë asks:

How do we rebirth ourselves on these digital platforms?

Divine healing codes are glitches in the colonised cyberspace. Data doulas begin their work by hacking biorhythm, algorithm, circadian rhythm. Let yourself download and feel the weight of your pain subside as digital deities protect your nervous system from the omnipresent colonial/capitalist grid, instead soft-wiring you into digital spheres of healing. These skyscraper-tall beings exist in the world wide web, racing through copper wires and across clouds to protect our precious selves from the systems that be.

We know technology can be dangerous – we’re bombarded daily with notifications, news feeds, doom scrolling and an endless circle of new and conflicting information.

We know we need to protect ourselves, take a break, switch off and detox, but technology keeps drawing us back in, each new notification a serotonin hit pulling our focus and drawing us into the internet’s mighty web.

What if we were to reframe this relationship? What if we can seek out healing in these systems that can cause us pain? What if technology also has great power to heal and soothe us?

Motherload on display in the MAP mima Cube

Artwork details

Hannah Brontë, MOTHERLOAD, 2022, 360-degree video, 5:09 mins. Soundscape by Jesswar.

Curatorial development

MOTHERLOAD was developed over a 12-month period and was the first major commission for the newly opened Multi-Arts Pavilion, mima.

It was commissioned by Lake Macquarie City Council as a site-specific work for the pavilion’s 360-degree projection space, the Cube.

The artwork was created especially for the space, filling all four walls of the Cube. The accompanying soundscape, created by musician Jesswar, uses sounds from outer space merged with obsolete technology.

Brontë was drawn to the themes of MAP mima as a site where ancient and emerging technology and cultures meet. Her commissioned work was inspired by these themes and the unique way MAP mima blends art, technology and the environment.

About the artist

Hannah Brontë is an Artist/Creatrix living and working on Yugambeh country. Brontë’s work explores the feminine experience, exploring our journeys and spiritual connections.

Brontë embraces multiple mediums including video, textiles, and soundscapes, and combines these to create visually distinctive works with a kaleidoscopic lens.

Much of her work correlates the treatment of the Earth to the treatment of our bodies. Her journey of self-discovery and the tangled layers of walking this life drive her to create dreamscapes exploring what could be.

Recently Brontë has included holistic, spiritual and physical healers as consultants for much of her work. She aims to ground audiences through the experiences depicted in her pieces, while learning that in vulnerability lies strength. Brontë’s work has begun unpacking intergenerational spiritual knowledge, which she feels is just the beginning of a new direction for her practice.