Motherdust (Morstøv), 2013
Gitte Sætre
In Motherdust, Gitte Sætre collects and archives household dust as both material and method. Dust — the residue of daily life — becomes a quiet index of human presence: fragments of bodies, time, care, and neglect. The work emerges from the domestic sphere, where cleaning is both a necessity and an inherited role. Through a feminist lens, Sætre examines how care, responsibility, and maintenance have historically been assigned, performed, and undervalued. Dust is not treated as waste to be removed, but as a condensed record of lived life. This early project forms a conceptual foundation for later works such as Woman Cleaning, where the act of care moves beyond the private space and into wider social and geopolitical contexts. What begins as an intimate gesture expands into a broader inquiry: who takes responsibility for what is left behind? By photographing small accumulations of dust, Sætre transforms the overlooked into something visible and shared. The work invites reflection on how everyday acts — often invisible and repetitive — shape both personal and collective realities.
Gitte Sætre
In Motherdust, Gitte Sætre collects and archives household dust as both material and method. Dust — the residue of daily life — becomes a quiet index of human presence: fragments of bodies, time, care, and neglect. The work emerges from the domestic sphere, where cleaning is both a necessity and an inherited role. Through a feminist lens, Sætre examines how care, responsibility, and maintenance have historically been assigned, performed, and undervalued. Dust is not treated as waste to be removed, but as a condensed record of lived life. This early project forms a conceptual foundation for later works such as Woman Cleaning, where the act of care moves beyond the private space and into wider social and geopolitical contexts. What begins as an intimate gesture expands into a broader inquiry: who takes responsibility for what is left behind? By photographing small accumulations of dust, Sætre transforms the overlooked into something visible and shared. The work invites reflection on how everyday acts — often invisible and repetitive — shape both personal and collective realities.