“MOTHERING MOTHER” is a performance that examined the complicated nature of mother / daughter relationships. The performance was part of an installation designed from research on Russian hiking banyas and birthing huts and was built with branches found near my home. Plastic tarps were placed over the hut to contain the steam that was being produced by three boiling kettles containing rose, eucalyptus, and pine. The ground was filled with charcoal to detoxify the air. My mom participated in the performance by reading a letter she wrote to me about being a mother via a phone connected to a speaker facing the viewers. While she read, I stood on a Himalayan salt pedestal and washed myself in Carolina red clay, rose petals, and goats’ milk. After bathing, I hit myself with a wet eucalyptus bath broom repeatedly for ten minutes until my mom hung up the phone. The viewers were engaged by the scent of the herbs and seduced by pink lighting and the emotional complexity between pain and care provoked by the performance. The conclusion of this work highlighted the potential for acts of mothering to question gender expectations and the performance of care.