New Skin – Exploring Motherhood

Below – installation shots from BPF16 exhibition at The Regency Town House, Brighton

[Links to each of the sevev separate elements exhibited as the installation ‘New Skin’ are below]

The kitchen of the Grade I listed Regency Town House allowed me to playfully explore the domestic space & its everyday absurdities. I carefully crafted a series of eight installation pieces, exploiting the quirks & character of the kitchen.

1. A giant photographic House of Cards balanced the fragility of my new identity on a kitchen table

2. Crockery & tea towels imprinted my everyday domestic life on a  Kitchen Dresser

3. The everyday idiosyncrasies of a toddler were delicately suspended in frames across a fireplace in the series Passing Pieces

4. A curated Wall of Images playfully displayed scenes of toddler-mother life

5. Video Projection

6. Self Portraits

7. At the rear lay the hollow remains of a scullery where I chose to explore a darker side in my motherhood journey – Miscarriage

About ‘New Skin‘

As a photographer I was compelled to document my pregnancy (project ‘288 Days’, 2014) and also the days, weeks & months which unfolded after the birth of my son, Rico. The New Skin project developed alongside my own transformation into the ‘new skin’ of motherhood. Boundaries between night & day, joy & despair, elation & exhaustion were confused. As my son began to grow, move & interact in our home, I began to notice his small interventions. I found that when I gave into the chaos & embraced it, there was rich ground for documenting the changes which were happening physically, emotionally & psychologically in my new identity as a mother. I documented everything, taking time to digest the scenes he’d leave behind. It was my way of recording & remembering each of these small but significant stages.

It began to be my way of restoring some of the balance between being an artist & a mother, allowing the creative to seep into the domestic world I was now submerged within. All of the images were naturally occurring situations & happenings. This was really important for me since I always work within a documentary style.