Art Collection

The MaMSIE art collection is a curated online selection of visual material which weaved together an intricate web of differing threads linked to the maternal.

The collection unites images be contemporary practitioners with those of historical figures such as Frida Kahlo. * Work in this collection tends to explore notions of universality alongside personal experience, and sometimes depicts imagined or even animal connections to new life, as well as actual parent/child relationships.

Art included is highly original, resolved and mature, dealing in multiple mediums, and has often been fuelled in its making by a highly conscious interest in art history. Not all artists consider the work of their forebears with the same intensity as the figures here, and in doing so create further ‘maternal’ relations between older and younger generations of artists.
– Dr Rebecca Baillie, Curator

Over the past two decades, representations of maternal bodies, foetal imagery and pregnant embodiment have become the subject of feminist critical investigation across fields as diverse as philosophy, literature, art, science studies and cultural studies. From the disciplinary perspective of art history, I am particularly interested in the power of visual imagery to frame our understanding of maternal bodies in ways that may affirm, disrupt or contest prevailing maternal ideals.
– Rosemarie Betterton, Maternal Bodies in Visual Culture.
Studies in the Maternal. 1(1), pp.1–3, 2009 

*Please note that it is particularly difficult to secure the reproduction rights for certain images. In the event that reproduction is impossible, works will be listed without a linked image. This way we acknowledge the place of the work by historical figures in the ‘imagined’ collection, but respectfully direct researchers and artists to look at it elsewhere. Unless otherwise stated, all works are reproduced courtesy of the artist in dialogue with Rebecca Baillie.

Artists