Inge Prins reveals the tender wit(h)nessing she has had to make as a child growing up with a parent with mental illness, the life-long journey of developing capacities and abilities to stay with the other, in this case the Mother, in ways that push and tug at our own empathetic capacities. In her words: "My mother (73) suffers from Schizophrenia. She was diagnosed +-34 years ago. I chose to photograph her hands. These hands that have experienced so very much. Her wrists hold very painful memories for me. These creative hands that do embroidery, knit, colour - in and play piano.”
Prins brought her mother to live with her family when President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a national state of disaster in South Africa during the Covid-19 outbreak. Typically residing in a care facility with nearly 100 elderly individuals facing mental health challenges and lacking family connections. Her mother required ICU treatment with a ventilator. Opting to prioritise her mother's safety, Inge made the decision to have her stay with her own family. This arrangement marked the longest period in over 25 years that Prins had lived with her mother, highlighting the unique circumstances and challenges imposed by the extended lockdown in South Africa, and was in which crisis can also bring us together in new and unexpected ways. Her work is a tender vigil to what this transforming relation is now many years on living with an illness that is very difficult to navigate.
“Home now means grandmother, daughter and grand-daughter - and to balance us out, my incredible partner.” Says Prins. In 2022 Prins’ mother had yet another relapse and became very ill and depressed. She decided to stop eating or drinking (living). “We respected her wishes and moved her to palliative care in a hospice where she passed away aged 76.” Prins' visual vigil and wit(h)ness of her mothers struggles, as well as her ability to stay with her decision to leave this world, offers a powerful reminder to our capacities to honour the sovereignty and self-determination of others, even if it means letting them go.
