Acts of Creation: On Motherhood in Art

06.05.2025

Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood, installation view, 2025, DCA. Photos by Ruth Clark

Curated by Hettie Judah with Hayward Gallery Touring – the UK’s largest contemporary art organisation producing touring exhibitions – Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhoodƀ
has been on tour in the UK since the end of 2024 and Dundee Contemporary Arts is its final stop, as well the only Scottish destination.

Hettie Judah is a writer and curator whose work appears in publications such as The Guardian, Frieze and Apollo magazine. Judah has written extensively on the impact of motherhood on artists’ careers, drawing up the manifesto ‘How Not To Exclude Artist Parents (and other parents)’ (2022). A book also accompanies the touring exhibition.

This large group show features the work of more than 60 modern and contemporary artists and is divided into sections, examining the different stages and emotions of the all- encompassing state of motherhood, from creation and caregiving to infertility, pregnancy loss and adoption.

It argues that while serene depictions of the Madonna and Child are among the most famous in European art, artworks exploring the true realities of motherhood are less common. Meanwhile, mothers as artists are relegated to an art history blind spot.

The first section ‘Creation’ focuses on motherhood as a creative act. Rineke Dijkstra presents photographs of new mothers taken in 1994, starkly early in their postpartum journey. Clinging tightly to their newborns, a line of blood runs down the leg of one woman, while another wears large disposable pants with a thick maternity pad stuffed inside to absorb the bleeding that typically lasts for three to six weeks after giving birth. These are brave, honest, and unflinching portrayals of what is often hidden to preserve the dignity of others.

Fani Parali’s ‘Incubator/Flight’ (2022) is a pencil drawing of her newborn placed in a metal incubator, acting as a reminder of the fragility of life and the heartache of caring for a child in a neonatal unit, entwined by wires and tubes.

‘You Can’t Have It All’ (2022) by Lea Cetera encapsulates with such simplicity the reproductive predicament women can experience. The glass sand timer in the shape of a uterus and ovaries represents the ever-ticking “biological clock” that places the pressure of childbearing firmly on their minds and bodies.

The subject of breastfeeding is explored in works such as Catherine Elwes’s nine-minute film ‘There is a Myth’ (1984) and beautiful oil painting ‘Bottles and Pumps’ (2022) by Caroline Walker showing a still life of the paraphernalia required to pump breastmilk.

The ‘Maintenance’ section of the exhibition focuses on caregiving beyond the early years. ‘Die Geburtenmadonna (The Birth Madonna)’ (1976) by VALIE EXPORT is part of a photography series in which EXPORT reimagines herself as the Virgin Mary in modern contexts – in this case sitting astride a washing machine bearing bloodied towels in the pose of Michaelangelo’s masterpiece, ‘Pietà’.

Billie Zangewa’s hand-stitched ‘Temporary Reprieve’ (2017) captures the worn-out nature of a sleeping woman catching up on some much-needed rest, while Emma Talbot’s stunning painted silk work ‘The Mountain, Time After Time’ (2016) reflects on the changing relationship with her son as he grows and becomes more independent. Marlene Dumas’s ‘Underground’ (1994-5) is a collaboration with her then six-year-old daughter, who “improves” her mother’s monochrome drawings with coloured paints.

The section entitled ‘Loss’ is approached with a trigger warning for gallery-goers. Tracey Emin’s 22-minute film ‘How it Feels’ (1996) describes the process and emotions of seeking an abortion, while Paula Rego’s powerful ‘Abortion Series’ (1999) was produced in reaction to a failed referendum to legalise abortion in Portugal. Elina Brotherus’s ‘Annonciation’ (2009-13) reveals through a series of photographs the isolating heartbreak of infertility.

In the final room, ‘Temple’ subverts the traditional iconography of the Madonna and Child with artists establishing their own context. Leni Dothan’s self portrait ‘Sleeping Madonna’ (2011) aptly shows an exhausted mother nodding off while cradling a baby at her breast.

Acts of Creation is exhibited at Dundee Contemporary Arts until 13^th July. Open Wednesday to Sunday.