Spilled Milk – Lena Chen

I think of motherhood the way I think of a dream job. ‘I could be good at this. I could grow from this. I have so much to offer. It would be a fulfilling opportunity. I have the right qualifications.’

Spilled Milk is a performative lecture on carework and maternal labor. The great myth of neoliberal feminism is that women can have it all. Despite seeking equality through the workplace, women have neglected to secure recognition for labor within the home and domestic sphere. Modern women are now expected to be productive members of the workforce while continuing to perform all the functions of motherhood (and a disproportionate share of housework). The corporate success stories of contemporary feminism are often only possible through the outsourcing of childcare and domestic tasks to less privileged, usually female workers.

Motherhood constitutes real labor: reproductive, emotional, and physical. Silvia Federici and the socialist feminist tradition argues that capitalist production relies on the uncompensated labor of those who create and nurture the life. Outlining the artist’s physical regimen to induce lactation in the absence of a pregnancy, Spilled Milk reveals the racial and class-based divisions within feminism and demands recognition for the labor of mothers, wet nurses, and careworkers.

Performed at MART (Dublin, Ireland) in June 2018:

Photography by Amber Baruch

Performed at gr_und (Berlin, Germany) in May 2018:

When your baby nuzzles at your breast or takes your breast into its mouth, messages are carried along the sensitive nerve pathways of the hypothalamus, a small gland in your brain. It produces oxytocin which is stored in posterior pituitary gland. Your anterior gland produces prolactin, which tells your breast to produce milk. These hormones are released into your blood stream. When the oxytocin reaches milk cells in breast, it causes them to squeeze and deliver your milk through your nipple to your baby.

**DAILY REGIMEN TO INDUCE LACATION**
08:00 Take a 610-mg Fenugreek supplement. Pump each breast for ten minutes.
12:00 Pump each breast for ten minutes.
16:00 Take a 610-mg Fenugreek supplement. Pump each breast for ten minutes.
20:00 Pump each breast for ten minutes.
00:00 Take a 610-mg Fenugreek supplement. Pump each breast for ten minutes.
04:00 Pump each breast for ten minutes.

**SUGGESTED DIET FOR BREASTFEEDING MOTHERS**
4-5 servings of dairy, 6-7 ounces of protein, 2-4 servings of fruit, 3-5 servings of vegetables, 6-11 servings of grains, 8-12 glasses of water (or other beverages), 2-3 servings of oils and fats.

**TEA TO PROMOTE MILK PRODUCTION**
Pour boiling water into a pot of fenugreek, fennel, anise, dill, coriander seeds, cumin, and caraway. Drink throughout the day.

Photography by Bea Rodrigues