'Breastfeeding raises a philosophical question; am I free range?' - Hannah Ballou, MOO:MA (2016)
Hannah Ballou is a London-based live artist and comedian. This image is from her ‘lost masterpiece’ MOO:MA: A Performance Lecture About Practice Research in the Performing Arts But Mostly About Tits, made whilst caring for her 4-month-old in the studio. Unsurprisingly, the devising process mostly consisted of pushing the buggy in circles with Simon & Garfunkel or white noise blaring. Other highlights included ‘The Dance of the Working Mum Fairy’ with a nursing pillow for a tutu, and Ballou pumping through the performance then letting the audience vote whether she or her baby drank the milk. (They chose Ballou who was ultimately disappointed by the flavour of her own labour.) Sadly, her life was so chaotic at the time that the video documentation of the show is lost, but the baby and Ballou’s conception of self somehow survived.