2019

This exhibition showcased part of my project The Mother Drawings (2017), The Mother Blankets (2017) and an excerpt as a way of being present (2015-present). I decided to put together these projects to reflect on the idea of the difficulties of being a mother and an artist.

Motherhood faces a period of pause that leads to very strong difficulties when trying to navigate the art world as well. Not only in academic or commercial terms, but also in the ´soft skills´ tacitly required to take part in a “successful” art practice: assisting to openings, conferences, talks, slams, group exhibitions, applying to grants and residencies, etc.

I also find there is a transition period in which a motherartist’s art practice is not only affected by a space/time factor, but also by the somatic changes that affect the psyche of the mother. These changes take time to settle, placing a mother’s mind in a vulnerable space that oscillates between spaces of philosophical abstraction and between changing nappies. Raising small children has an impact on the artist’s body of work, often reflecting inconsistencies due to periods of more personal and subjective explorations. In a context where the academia and the market look for consistency in an artist’s career, some mother have a lot to their disadvantage.