Labour of Love : Firing the Image

Sammanfattning

The essay “Labour of Love: Firing the Image” traces a matrilineal lineage: a grandmother who worked as a deputy producer in Czechoslovakian film studios at both ends of the socialist revolution; a mother, a hairdresser, who shapeshifted the audiovisual narratives engraved in celluloid into haircuts; and a daughter searching for ways to process inherited memories by making her own ‘fossil.’ By mapping the intertwined lives of her mother and grandmother, Koutná uncovers the broader social traumas of working Czech women who were diminished and lacked substantial support. The essay reveals their roles interweaving the personal and public spheres of Czech society. Throughout the text, several ‘cracks’ are introduced as conceptual disruptors, exposing an absent system of care and the failing socialist promise of gender equality. To untangle her heritage, Koutná develops an artistic methodology of ‘firing the image.’ By heat-fusing glass plate negatives, she documents the labour and process behind the change of an inherited image.