Alison Thompson, Andrea Carvalho, Camille Myles, Cherie Harte, Kerri-Lynn Reeves, Lan Luo, Leah Gold, Marlene Yuen, Mary-Ann Alberga, Mary Dyja, Olga Klosowski, Rachelle
Wunderink, Sarah Cullen, Suzi Garner, Xiao Han
August 5 – 27, 2023
Reception: Saturday August 19, 1-3 pm
MOTHRA: Eclipse brings the MOTHRA: Artist-Parent Project to Hamilton.
MOTHRA was founded in 2018 by Sarah Cullen with the help of Alison Thompson. The project runs artist residencies, agitates around the rights of caregivers, produces a zine, and exhibits together.
The artists in this exhibition are all part of the MOTHRA network and have all been participants in a MOTHRA residency at some point over the last five years.
As a group we were intrigued by the themes of the eclipse: an event in which light is obscured from one celestial body by the passage of another between it and the observer. The feeling of a loss of significance, that one’s light has been obscured, can be common amongst parents and carers in relation to their child, but also in relation to how an artist-parent might feel in relation to their practice as well as with the art world in which they participate.
However, an eclipse is also a time when people come together. We marvel at the rarity, of the mystery, of the beauty of an eclipse. They are a spectacular sight. This is not unlike a MOTHRA residency, where for a short fleeting time we gather under the same roof with our children. We make work, cook, read, talk, and play together. After, we go back to our regular lives, albeit slightly changed forever, transformed.
A patriarchal mode of working and making art has dominated our lives as artists as it has throughout our culture. To be taken seriously in most fields you are expected to sever your links with personal relationships - such as family - in order to be successful. MOTHRA is attempting to push back against this.
We are here to acknowledge the parent/artist relationship, often overlooked in contemporary art, and to set a precedent that one can still be an artist and a mother/father/carer of a child and that these roles can conflate.
Wunderink, Sarah Cullen, Suzi Garner, Xiao Han
August 5 – 27, 2023
Reception: Saturday August 19, 1-3 pm
MOTHRA: Eclipse brings the MOTHRA: Artist-Parent Project to Hamilton.
MOTHRA was founded in 2018 by Sarah Cullen with the help of Alison Thompson. The project runs artist residencies, agitates around the rights of caregivers, produces a zine, and exhibits together.
The artists in this exhibition are all part of the MOTHRA network and have all been participants in a MOTHRA residency at some point over the last five years.
As a group we were intrigued by the themes of the eclipse: an event in which light is obscured from one celestial body by the passage of another between it and the observer. The feeling of a loss of significance, that one’s light has been obscured, can be common amongst parents and carers in relation to their child, but also in relation to how an artist-parent might feel in relation to their practice as well as with the art world in which they participate.
However, an eclipse is also a time when people come together. We marvel at the rarity, of the mystery, of the beauty of an eclipse. They are a spectacular sight. This is not unlike a MOTHRA residency, where for a short fleeting time we gather under the same roof with our children. We make work, cook, read, talk, and play together. After, we go back to our regular lives, albeit slightly changed forever, transformed.
A patriarchal mode of working and making art has dominated our lives as artists as it has throughout our culture. To be taken seriously in most fields you are expected to sever your links with personal relationships - such as family - in order to be successful. MOTHRA is attempting to push back against this.
We are here to acknowledge the parent/artist relationship, often overlooked in contemporary art, and to set a precedent that one can still be an artist and a mother/father/carer of a child and that these roles can conflate.