Two new identities, Mother and motherless.
A collision of birth and death provides the inception for what became a long-running commentary, almost a decade in the making.
In-Passing’ began in 2015, the year I became a mother to my first child, followed shortly after by the loss of my mother to illness.
The making of images at first proved to be a dogged witness to a new reality and a therapeutic outlet for my grief and awe.
It is heavily saturated by my unravelling departure from who I once was and the metamorphosis of self that becoming a mother sets in motion in both body and mind—a transformation that somehow remains widely unacknowledged in broader society.
Its most obvious incarnation is a visceral account of the chaos and intimacy of my familial space during my children’s formative years, each image speaking of the complexities, intimacy and emotional landscapes of the mother and child universe.
It also represents the search for a force that lingers beyond my grasp at the outer edges of memory and consciousness.
A collision of birth and death provides the inception for what became a long-running commentary, almost a decade in the making.
In-Passing’ began in 2015, the year I became a mother to my first child, followed shortly after by the loss of my mother to illness.
The making of images at first proved to be a dogged witness to a new reality and a therapeutic outlet for my grief and awe.
It is heavily saturated by my unravelling departure from who I once was and the metamorphosis of self that becoming a mother sets in motion in both body and mind—a transformation that somehow remains widely unacknowledged in broader society.
Its most obvious incarnation is a visceral account of the chaos and intimacy of my familial space during my children’s formative years, each image speaking of the complexities, intimacy and emotional landscapes of the mother and child universe.
It also represents the search for a force that lingers beyond my grasp at the outer edges of memory and consciousness.
How long does a mother ‘carry’ a child?
As early as the second week of pregnancy there is a two-way transference of cells and DNA between the fetus and the mother. Cells containing DNA cross the placenta and enter into the mothers’ bloodstream, embedding in various organs including the heart, brain and lungs, where evidence has shown that they can remain for decades.
This phenomenon is called microchimerism, from the word ‘chimera’, referring to a mythical creature made up of the parts of different animals.
Mother, as chimera.
As early as the second week of pregnancy there is a two-way transference of cells and DNA between the fetus and the mother. Cells containing DNA cross the placenta and enter into the mothers’ bloodstream, embedding in various organs including the heart, brain and lungs, where evidence has shown that they can remain for decades.
This phenomenon is called microchimerism, from the word ‘chimera’, referring to a mythical creature made up of the parts of different animals.
Mother, as chimera.