(S)mothering Myself: Feelings in Renting a Mother Part I

Synopsis

Part I unfolds through a role-play between myself and Suzuki-san, a rental mother, in which she performs the role of my mother and I that of her daughter. Drawing from my ethnographic research with rental mothers in Japan, the work approaches rental motherhood as a mediated site where care, intimacy, and obligation are negotiated through contracts, service protocols, and affective labour. In our conversation, I ask intimate questions: What was it like giving birth to me? What did you wish for me when I was born? Why did you leave my father?