“MOTHER” is a visual and verbal exploration into motherhood from the child-birthing and primary-caregiving points of view. The show presents different personal accounts of the emotional and physical labor involved in bringing up children from the perspective of the primary caregiver, along with the shift in identity involved when your whole life is pushed aside, bringing about interruptions of social networks, career paths and fiscal security, which comes about when you are absent from society for years because of primary caregiving; issues that many who don’t experience it take for granted.
It is a hot-button subject in these times given the abolition of Roe v. Wade, and the subsequent dangerously stringent laws governing bodies with wombs by mostly cis-male legislators who are not birth parents, nor primary caregiving parents. Since reproductive choice restriction rights came about, maternal mortality rose by 56 percent in Texas (155 percent higher than in California) with people of color being disproportionately affected. Many of these were already parents, so leaving many kids without a parent.
It is unsurprising that curator Fern Tallos felt the need to give the burden of child birthing and rearing a collective voice; and on the reception night, the Olympia community turned up in support, it being one of the best-supported visual arts events in recent memory.
The show is filled with so many heartfelt experiences, like a peek into a hidden private world of joys and tragedies; such is parenting. Two stories strike hard. Mikaela Shafer’s tender and heartfelt account of the death of her infant, described with such intimacy and fragility, yet delivered with such strength and hope, her art piece symbolically reflecting her courage and determination to survive this devastating event. Then there is Lizzie Mithrandir‘s story. Giant hands made of wooden board and printed canvass stringing cat’s cradle finger-knit yarn represent how large and capable her hands must seem to her child, she tells of the emotionally delicate and physical struggles of holding her child down to administer leukemia medicine, then caring for and playing games with the same child. Both distressing and redeeming.
Shelly Seder’s indigo dye batik image was inspired by her drive to Tacoma St. Joe’s hospital to visit her preemie daughter who spent the first two months of her life there. She says: “It housed the most traumatic and hopeful moment of my life.” Saying how she was terrified of losing her and how love is indeed the highest power.
Anna Okrasinski Maddox’s small, charming mixed media collage speaks to her journey of self-discovery through motherhood. Phoebe Wahl has two pieces in the show, one is a colored pencil sketch of someone giving birth created while she was creating her second child; the second piece is a support pillow with a painted image of a woman and breasts which tells of how much of a person’s life, both in time and emotional energy, is given over to breastfeeding and the comfort of another being. Ellen Tommila’s floral installation focuses on the transitions of a birthing parent’s life and her own family’s creativity, and the chaos in creativity. Maria Nemorosa’s two digital drawings depict surreal and emotional renderings of the complexity of being the caregiving parent.
Alcamy Henrikson’s giclee photographs speak to the fear and joy in early parenting. Holly Stevens’ polaroid photos of Rachel Koszka, “Rachel at 36 weeks,” likens physical pregnancy and birth to the creative process in art. Their friendship started with Koszka being Steven’s birth doula, then blossomed into friendship and creative collaborators. So many close bonds are indeed made through parenting.
There are two shrine-like pieces in the show. The curator Tallos’ installation features one of her charming-at-first-sight paintings of three generations of mothers, the imagery suggesting both unhealed trauma and gentle care. Religious figures on pedestals and pink bojagi like banners flank bunting saying “LOVE YOUR MOTHER” in the windowlike space with large, overstuffed bean-bag-like breasts on the floor. Kelsey Smith’s small shrine entitled “Mother Daughter Self” is an aquatint etching, under which on a shelf sit artist books of an interview with her 33-year-old daughter Cleo, highlighting the importance of oral story telling in preserving memories. Mariella Luz’s sculpture is also a little shrine-like.
They enlisted help from their family members with their sculpture of a moon-like wall piece, and many, many little rabbits showing the continuity of life, and the community and support of family.
Kelly Watson’s piece made from fabric seen as feminine lace and pearls. Her writing focuses on how pregnancies are not always planned and how women often step up to the plate, even with the enormous burden and interruption imposed.
There are four quilts in the show, and they all document the passing of time. Kirsten Millier’s hangs resplendent in the center of the room entitled “Forty weeks, Give/Take,” the number of weeks the body grows another human. Vida Hannon’s bedazzling quilt is an ode to her family, their tastes and their skills. Julia Reed is a single mom by choice and has two calendar quilts with one image per month to preserve memories, stitched together to make a finished piece. One finished and one in progress. They have two distinct styles which Reed tells us is part of her progress as a mother and an artist.
A’misa Chiu’s tryptic paintings of herself and her two daughters discuss the similarity in their features and that unintentionally she came out smaller than the depictions of her daughters, which is sometimes how it feels while childrearing. Yvonne Kunz’s paintings, Nourish the one super large painting of engorged lactating breasts, the smaller one Cyclops depicts motherhood on an apron, like one of those aprons with a printed cartoon naked body, only Kunz’s confronts you with a much more real body. In her statement she expresses many of the struggles of early parenthood asking common questions of new caregivers “Who am I now?’ and “Why is this so lonely?” Why indeed.
The show is a gift full of frank and earnest insights. Be sure not to miss it.
Photos by Lynette Charters Serembe.
WHAT:
MOTHER Fine Art show curated by Fern Tallos
WHERE:
Thurston County Museum of Fine Art (TCMoFA), 120 Olympia Ave NE. Olympia
WHEN:
Through September 18,, Fridays 3 – 6 p.m., Saturdays & Sundays noon to 4 p.m.
HOW MUCH:
Free
LEARN MORE:
https://www.tcmofa.org/