Fattened Flattened Tongue Ties:
Performing Maternality Online and Offline

Helen Benigson

Lady Margaret Hall

University of Oxford

DPhil Fine Art

Hilary 2018

Contact

helen@helenbenigson.com

Acknowledgements

I am extremely grateful to the many individuals and institutions that have contributed to my doctoral research. Firstly, this research has been made possible by the support of the Clarendon Fund Scholarship. I would like to thank my exceptionally generous supervisors Eve Ess, Corin Sworn and John Cussans, for their timeless energy, endless encouragement and enriching support. Most recently, Eve Ess has become an extremely valued intellectual mentor to me and I have really appreciated working together. I must also acknowledge my DPhil colleagues and staff at the Ruskin School of Art, who have deeply enhanced my seminars and research and allowed me to test out ideas in a generative and open way, as well as the members and participants of the Ruskin Performance Club / Ruskin Centre for Performance, particularly Angeli Bhose and Jessica Palmer.  Special thanks go to Helen Cauldfield, Consultant Paediatric ENT Surgeon for sharing her expertise in infant tongue-tie with me. I would like to sincerely thank Jude Rose, Marcelle Savage, China Collett and Philippa Found for their intimate involvement in some of the videos and audio works. I would like to thank my (m)other, Moira Benigson and my god(m)other, Tamar Garb. I would also like to thank Gali Karmi, Victor Benigson, Kelly Large, Yuval Etgar, Naomi Vogt, Nina Wakeford, Katrina Palmer, Matt Carter, Catherine McCormack, Lisa Baraitser, Dave Johnson, Adriano Rossetti-Bonell, Jasmine Johnson, Jessica Michel, Mary Roselle Santos, Eric Collins, Touch Surgery, Amy’s Nails Oxford, East and West Oxford Community Centres, the Zabludowicz Collection, Ashmolean Museum, LUX and the Royal Free Hospital and of course all of the (m)others that I have encountered during this research. Finally, I give my entire love and gratitude to my two babies, Harry and Noah.