This is Motherhood In Anna Radchenko’s World

Anna Radchenko is a Russian director who is currently based in London. At the age of 30 she gave birth to her first child, a moment that would become the precipice from which she would spearhead her recent project, GRANDmothers, based on motherhood and the expectations of women in society. Her work often uses humour to challenge ageism, consumer culture and fashion, topics which often play into the benefit and detriment of women.

The identity of a woman is a persistent theme in Anna’s portfolio and as a true artist she illustrates her experiences in her work. Anna mentions that having her child at 30 meant that she would be classified as an “Old Mother” according to the previous Soviet-State values. Often pregnancy can involuntarily make a woman unable to work, house-bound but never a social pariah, by simply choosing to conceive later in life. The short film that accompanies Annas photography speaks vociferously of these outdated notions of motherhood by presenting older women posing to Trap music, dressed in contemporary regalia, and rubbing their heavily pregnant bellies. The intention is simple: to laugh at a reality that seems absurd but isn’t biologically impossible.

It’s true that the many pressures women face – ‘to get married’ – ‘find a spouse’ –‘stay youthful’ – may be dumbfounded on the fear of ageing. Yet these often hyperbolic fears with a sprinkle of grandiose taps into another aspect of Anna’s body of work which is consumerism. Her exploration of fashion and beauty is precisely what we can use to understand her concept of motherhood. For example, If we think of the maternity clothing market, it is usually marketed to pregnant women using younger models, with their child bearing years ahead of them. This irony of sorts is a deeper reflection of the immense pressures that older women may feel when posed with the decision to start a family. In her previous projects such as “Silver Goddesses” and “Detour” Anna merges biological themes like hair and age with fashion to further the conversation on how we consume womanhood, beauty and femininity.

““I was thirty years old when I became a mother. This made me think about how in the USSR I would have been referred to as an “Old Mother” on my medical card.””

Hailing from Russia with its Post-Soviet past, it is no wonder why Anna’s work aims to tickle our senses whether it is through sound, words or textures. The USSR known for it bleak communist regime created a society where people couldn’t trade with western countries for basic commodities like alcohol and mineral water. So It’s very apparent why Anna’s work revolves around and tenderly cuts through the association between objects and people: even at the most empowering of times in history women could be thought of as one dimensional or burdened with expectations. For example after giving birth, a Russian mother, may feel even more pressure, compared to western ideals, to “Snap back” from her pregnancy, wear heels and makeup whilst taking care of her household. GRANDmothers celebrates but subverts this image by showing the full scope of femininity and how we can still value women as they get older.

““By having projects such as GRANDmothers published and shared online, I want to make a difference in shifting our mindset and allowing us to perceive ageing as something as valuable for women, as it is for men.””

Anna’s visual humour permeates our imagination without tying us down to a chair and sellotaping our eyes wide open. She’s simply challenging our thoughts saying, “Why should a woman’s value decline after a certain age; ‘what if’ femininity wasn’t associated with youth but instead the full scope of what a woman can be now and in the future?”.

Follow Anna Radchenko on Instagram @radchenko_academy

Words by Funmi Olagunju