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The Suburban Mom 2.0

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Sometimes a Tumblr is just a Tumblr—other times, it’s social commentary. Woman’s Day, a tumblelog that deals exclusively in oft-cringeworthy depictions of everyday femininity, fits that latter category. Started by Chicago artist Cole Chickering more than four years ago, Woman’s Day is a survey of images that its creator defines as “reaching out to every single woman in this clumsy sweep.” Within: stock-like, nearly anonymous images that live in the weird space between everyday and low-level aspirational. 

Overwhelmingly white and middle class, the women of Woman’s Day tend to have very specific concerns—and a lifestyle where grocery bags of baguettes, fresh flowers, and “tumbling bell peppers” are the ultimate signifiers of modern femininity. Chickering recently compiled his Tumblr imagery into a print zine, Model Behavior, and is at work on the second issue. We spoke to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago-grad about Suzanne Somers' influence, the dangers of source hoarding, and his love of grocery check-out line periodicals. 


ALISON BAITZ: How do you describe the aesthetic of your art?
COLE CHICKERING: Well, it’s sort of defined by its source materials, because I’m working basically exclusively with found imagery. When I’m at thrift stores looking through all of the books and all of the magazines and all the textbooks and cookbooks, there are so many repeated icons and messages, specifically when it comes to women’s media. I just kept seeing things over and over again, and feeling really compelled to start recording them. The aesthetic then takes on this weird unreality or “un-canniness” of media portrayals of everyday women who are doing supposedly everyday things. 

What's an interesting image you've found recently?
Over the weekend, I was on this website called Wayfair, which is this furniture and home decor—décor with a dash over the 'e'—website. It's humongous and it has so many high-quality, beautiful images of every kind of furniture you can imagine. They're all really staged and fake-y looking but with lots of details and accessories, strung all over the place. This weekend I was looking through thousands of pictures of home office desks because I noticed that a lot of them—many of them—have a little framed picture of a smiling or laughing woman. Like, the lady at home, the office wife; the pretty miss who is inspiring all this hard work at your office desk. Why is it a picture of her? Unless it's a picture of herself, she must not work at that desk.

So, you actually go to thrift stores to source?
Yeah, I get my source materials a lot of different ways, but a lot of things do come from the thrift store. Over time, I’ve found sources that I love so much because of the excessive degree of bizarre activity going on in some of these print sources. I’ll seek those things out online and order whole back issue runs of, like, Country Woman Magazine and Michaels Arts and Crafts Magazine. Also, Suzanne Somers has published so many books and she’s just unbelievable—I love her so much because she is a wild one.

Does your apartment look insane from borderline source hoarding?
Well, yeah. The thing is, I really love these sources—they’re so special to me that when I find them, I feel like I’ve found this incredible gem and so I have this reverence for them and I feel strongly about them, so I don’t want to throw them away. It is kind of taking over, but I can&rs

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