The 3 automaton of Maiden, Mother and Crone form an interactive triptych exploring female identity, with each figure posing a question about societal expectations around female stereotypes. This video is of the general public interacting with the automaton as RCA2025.

Video of the public interacting with the work at RCA 2025

An automaton that embodies the crone. Set against repeated photolithographs of spinning plates symbolising endless domestic cycles, the green hues and cross-hatching evoke associations with currency to raise questions about how unpaid female labour is recognised and valued. The mechanism features world currencies and fluctuating markets as symbols for economic systems. Her fragmented harlequin costume, crafted from delicate wood veneers, reflects the splintering of a woman’s time between caregiving, identity, and aspiration.

An automaton that embodies the mother. Laser-cut babies in chromatic hues float above charcoal screen prints of children, overlaid with netted patterns, symbolising societal categorisation from birth and social structures. Her naked form echoes classical imagery of Venus, subverted with tattoos and visible pubic hair. The mechanism is decorated with DNA sequences and chromosomes, representing reproductive codes and challenging cultural expectations around motherhood.

An automaton that embodies the maiden. Drawing from the visual language of domestic interiors it references the soft patterns that have long shaped ideals of femininity, beauty, and taste. Digitally fabricated using laser cutting, UV, and sublimation printing, the doll is set against hand-printed embossed wallpaper to highlight tensions between perfection and imperfection, crafted beauty and lived experience, surface and substance.