Childless 39 year old artist Louise Ashcroft is building a DIY sperm bank outside her home, to reflect on who gets to have kids, who doesn't, and how we might reinvent family for 2022.
Fashioned from an old bird hut, this 'open sauce' gene-vault is designed to bring her closer to her neighbours and to annoy her child-hesitant girlfriend. Part joke, part public tantrum about the reproductive industry and the prohibitive cost of sperm; Louise's Bird Hut Sperm Bank is a comical meditation on her own reproductive challenges and ambivalence, which explores histories and futures of doing family differently.
In an era of tech bros minting their own genomes as NFTs, and biohackers making dogs glow in the dark, what does it mean to spread your seed? Ancestry.com owns our genetic weaknesses, Mutual Aid has been eaten by instant grocery apps, and the word 'homeschooling' needs a trigger warning. Are there better ways we could share the privileges and responsibilities of care, post-pandemic?
The clock is ticking... help Louise reimagine the future of family, before Silicon Valley invents the on demand Uber-Mom.
Dramturg - Paula Crutchlow
Scriptwirting Outside Eye - Dec Munro
Artist Support - Fritha Jenkins
Bird Hut Sperm Bank is supported by Goldsmiths, University of London
"The seed commission has made me feel supported, not just as an artist but also a woman of colour whose story needs to be heard."
CPT Commissioned Artist
