Towards a Language of Interruption

Abstract

My research paper is an attempt to begin to articulate and document my lived experience of being both a mother and an artist. Underpinned by research into the cultural and social history of the experience of mothering and the cultural institution of ‘motherhood’, I revisit and reinterpret some of my earlier works, and explore issues of identity brought up by the relational experience of mothering. I seek out other women who are, or have been, both mothers and artists – particularly sculptors – whose work relates to their subjective experiences of mothering. From them I select and investigate both works, and reflections, which I feel resonate with my own experience of combining the roles of mother and artist. Against this background I describe and interpret my own recent body of work, drawn from my subjective experience of becoming, and being, a mother whilst continuing my artistic practice.