Mother
(Book)

In the spirit of William Wegman and Cindy Sherman, Judy Olausen offers up a hilarious yet oddly unsettling collection of portraits of that most sacred of institutions: Mother. Photographing her own mother using 1950s-inspired props, she turns a lifelong homemaker into a surreal icon of all-American-style domestic submission. From "Mother as Coffee Table" to "Mother as Doormat" or "Roadkill," Olausen creates visual metaphors for Mother's role in the era just preceding the women's liberation movement.
Vivian Olausen, the sole model in Mother, proved to be an enthusiastic and professional participant. She lugs a boulder up a staircase in "Mother Under Pressure" and drags a cross in "Mother Goes to Market." She's shown strapped to an old sedan, chained to a chair, chased by a giant tarantula in one image and a bear in another - all with good humor. "I'm just Judy's model," says Vivian, "I leave the rest up to her."