The Holding Place

The Holding Place is a meditation on the physical, psychological and political landscape of Motherhood. The work explores the experience of motherhood through a matricentric feminist lens.

While balancing unpaid emotional and domestic labor with full time paid work, I placed my photographic practice on hold. It was an indulgence I couldn't afford, Motherhood demanded this sacrifice. As my child grew, influenced by Matricentric Feminism, working with a feminist concept of intersubjectivity, “how to care for another and one’s self”, I began carving the time to explore my role as mother and artist. Finding the quiet moments between the intense days of working and mothering I photograph our everyday.

“The Holding Place '' is a meditation on the physical, psychological and political landscape of Motherhood. The small world that is inhabited, the recurring daily routines, the scant time available, and the intimacy of the mother child relationship all shape the work. While feminism has changed women’s life outside the home, little has changed inside the home where women still carry the emotional and domestic load. In my work the personal and political blur, I hint at my simmering rage and frustration borne by the imbalances of motherhood while also proclaiming my contradictory feelings of love and devotion.

The work reveals that while motherhood undoubtedly gives something, it also takes something valuable away. Through this work I want to celebrate mothering and call out motherhood. I aim to show the value of caring and nurturing, while exposing the patriarchal capitalist structures that impose an experience of entrapment on mothers.