Margarita Cappock visits an exhibition that explores artists’ lived experience of becoming – or not becoming – a mother, in all its intricacy
‘Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood’ features over a hundred artworks by sixty modern and contemporary artists and includes painting, drawing, sculpture, film, photography and sound that considers the experience of motherhood in all its complexity. The works date from the 1960s to the present day. It was conceived by curator and writer Hettie Judah, in collaboration with Hayward Gallery Touring in London.
Judah’s selection moves away from the history of art’s idealised subject of the Madonna and Child and looks at the actual subject of motherhood – the whole, messy experience, encompassing childbirth, infertility, miscarriage, abortion, loss and domestic abuse. The exhibition has toured Bristol, Birmingham, Dundee and Sheffield and in each venue different works have been introduced into the show. The Irish artists included in the UK tour were Dorothy Cross, Rachel Fallon and Daphne Wright. More have been added for the Irish iteration, including Trish Morrissey, Pauline Cummins, Elizabeth Cope and Geraldine O’Neill.
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