Video — Leonie Weber

Be The One

2022

4:45 min

Music: “Yours Song” by Imposter Experts (Jesse Seldess and Leonie Weber)

This video shows a mother stabbing her daughter in what seems to be an inexplicable fit of insanity, and the daughter stabbing her in return. The scene is improvised and eventually resolves in mother and daughter jokingly smearing blood into each other's faces and chatting with each other. As they get up, one hears the mother (me) go directly back into maintenance mode, asking the daughter to take her shoes off so she doesn’t track the fake blood through the house. The camera then rests on the blood-stained floor.While this piece was inspired by my daughter’s love for horror movies and gory Halloween costumes, it also touches upon postnatal trauma. Many women experience fears or phantasies of killing their children – a shameful experience and taboo subject that they are often alone with, unable to share it or to get help for fear of losing their children if they mention these thoughts.