Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood: VISUAL Carlow

Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood is a landmark touring exhibition conceived by Hettie Judah in collaboration with Hayward Gallery Touring. Following a successful tour of the UK, Acts of Creation comes to VISUAL augmented by the inclusion of works from Irish artists and collections with three works from The Second Shift held in the National Collection of Arts Council Ireland/An Chomhairle Ealaion.

Spanning all of VISUAL's galleries, Acts of Creation presents work in painting, drawing, sculpture, film, photography and sound that speaks to the experience of motherhood in all its complexity. At VISUAL, an accompanying in-depth learning programme will respond to the exhibition's themes and works. A reading area, a reflection space and specialist workshops and tours will further provide visitors with ways to engage with the ideas and experiences reflected in this powerful exhibition.

Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood plunges into the joys and heartaches, mess, myths and mishaps of motherhood through over 100 artworks, from the Women’s Movement of the 1960s and 70s to the present day.

While the Madonna and Child is one of the great subjects of European art, we rarely see art about real motherhood, in all its complexity. Acts of Creation addresses this blind spot in art history, asserting the artist mother as an important cultural figure.
How does the image of motherhood change when the artist is drawing on lived experience? What is made visible? What challenges are levelled at motherhood as an institution through which the mother is idealised as self-sacrificing, wholesome, tireless and uncomplaining?

Diverse experiences are explored across four thematic displays. Creation looks at conception, pregnancy, birth and nursing. It imagines motherhood as a creative act, albeit one in which joy might be tempered with anxiety, pain and exhaustion.
Maintenance is dedicated to the ongoing work of motherhood and caregiving in the day-to-day. Here we find artists engaged in domestic chores, keeping children safe, and navigating a balance between art and parenting.

In Loss artists reflect on experiences of miscarriage, adoption and involuntary childlessness. Works in this section also protest the loss of women’s reproductive rights. The Temple is a series of self-portraits in which artists explore their own identity in relation to motherhood. For decades women were told they could not be both an artist and a mother. These portraits stand in defiance of that idea.

Acts of Creation features work by Felicity Allen, Janine Antoni, Cassie Arnold, Bobby Baker, Elina Brotherus, Liesel Burisch, Cathy Cade, Lea Cetera, Elizabeth Cope, Phoebe Cope, Renee Cox, Dorothy Cross, Pauline Cummins, Rineke Dijkstra, Natalie Djurberg & Hans Berg, Leni Dothan, Marlene Dumas, Tracey Emin, Jessa Fairbrother, Rachel Fallon, Feministo, Fenix, Emma Finucane, Angela Forte, Clare Gallagher, Maeve Gilmore, Anna Grevenitis, Camille Henrot, Susan Hiller, Patricia Hurl, Elsa James, Chantal Joffe, Liss LaFleur, MATERNAL FANTASIES, Nalini Malani, Lindsey Mendick, Trish Morrissey, Mother Art, Wangechi Mutu, Ishbel Myerscough, Geraldine O’Neill, Catherine Opie, Fani Parali, Celia Paul, Cathie Pilkington, Polvo de Gallina Negra, Kathy Prendergast, Laure Prouvost, Paula Rego, Su Richardson, Sister Seven, Monica Sjöö, Annegret Soltau, Tabitha Soren, Nancy Spero, Hannah Starkey, The Hackney Flashers, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Christine Voge, Del La Grace Volcano, Caroline Walker, Nancy Willis, Hermione Wiltshire, Hermione Wiltshire & Clare Bottomley, Carmen Winant, Daphne Wright, Billie Zangewa.