installation view (photo by Ashley Story)
As a writer, I find I’ve become more attuned to my own creative output since I birthed two beautiful girls in 2020 and 2024. The connection in my own mind is unmistakable, and the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center’s exhibition, “The Mother and…Project” has validated these thoughts of mine, emphasizing the mother-artist link in its remarkable multimedia display of works.
Kansas City’s Courtney Wasson, co-curator of the exhibition, posed a pressing discussion question to participating artists: “Was there a moment when your artist and mother identities intersected clearly?” The artists’ responses, verbally and through their physical works, demonstrate the intersectional approach of the exhibition, underscoring the variety of identities, perspectives, modalities and application of materials present in “The Mother and… Project.”
Curatorial choices and visual cues reveal several obvious themes, one of which is repetition. Nancy Friedmann-Sánchez’ ink on mylar “Byzantine Grid” evokes the overwhelming nature of motherhood, where one shape overlaps another, attempting to help us make sense of the world and our family’s contribution to its betterment.
Althea Murphy-Price’s “In the Weeds” resonates with a different kind of repetitiveness, one that sits at the heart of daily motherhood. Her screenprint portraying countless hairpins reminds us that motherhood is unearthing the evidence of their own daughters in bathtubs, on cafeteria floors and in between couch cushions.
While we can identify that same repetition in Amy Meissner’s “Milk on the Tongue” and Laura Berman’s “Under the Sky, Across the Land, Onto the Earth,” those pieces emphasize the lottery that is raising another human being. Infants learn and respond differently, but they each open their mouths for milk, as shown in Meissner’s 54 unique and meticulously crafted mouths to feed.
Berman uses the words “negotiation and response” to explain her 100 tiny paintings. Through abstract and organized forms, I can identify in these works the futile attempt at organizing a childhood, locating missing library books, unpaired shoes and old lollipop sticks while also cataloging physical, intellectual and emotional growth.
Sukanya Mani’s “Thooli – After the birth” is one of several installations in the exhibition. I am fascinated by this piece about postpartum care, because Mani indicates that the work was “birthed” when she was closer in age to menopause. In the same way a mother’s memory shapes and reforms as her children change, through cut paper, donated fabric and thread, Mani captures the tears, the bonding, intrusive thoughts and radiating fatigue so prevalent in early motherhood.
Diana Heise’s five-photograph series suggests a discussion about the complications of bringing children into the world while humanity half-heartedly confronts imminent climate disaster. Nourishing our children’s bodies through food and imagery, Heise’s “We are of this World” asks us to realize that our choices, as mothers and as people, have deeper consequences than we may ever know.
The exhibition was co-curated and organized by Eleanor Lim-Midyett. Other artists in the exhibition include Debbie Barrett-Jones, Rahele Jomepour Bell, Laura Berman, Mona Cliff, Julie Farstad, Cory Imig, Sarah Irvin, Priya Kambli, Samantha Krukowski Linda Lighton, Beili Liu, Adrienne Maples and Sonié Joi Thompson Ruffin. The project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Missouri Arts Council and the Kansas City Art Institute. Additional support comes from the Kansas City Artist Coalition, DBACO and Hotel Indigo.
“The Mother and…Project” continues at the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center, 2012 Baltimore Ave., through Nov. 21. Hours are 11 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. For more information, 816-474-1919 or www.leedy-voulkos.com.
