A Path Described By A Body”, exhibited at Casa Otro in Las Cruces, depicts work from 11 artists who are also mothers and who currently live and work in New Mexico. The exhibition is co-curated by artists Kaylan Buteyn (Artist/Mother Podcast) and Sarah Irvin (Artist Parent Index) and is planned in tandem with the inaugural exhibition of the new University Art Museum (UAM) at New Mexico State University’s opening - Labor: Motherhood & Art in 2020. The exhibition includes the following artists: Mira Burack, Tauna Cole-Dorn, Sharbani Das Gupta, Megan Jacobs, Stephanie Lerma, Jessamyn Lovell, Rachel Popowcer, Danila Rumold, Zoe Spiliotis, Isadora Stowe, and Tina Wolverton.
CURATORIAL STATEMENT:
Artists who are mothers are organizing in a way that has never happened before. The particular realities and difficulties faced by artists with children have led to this groundswell of international, community-oriented organizations, exhibits, publications, advocacy groups, and studio models with on-site child care. This is a generational shift away from many female artists hiding the fact that they have children to the complete opposite - artists tackling pregnancy, birth, and child-rearing in their creative practices.
An “orbit” is defined as “a path described by one body in its revolution about another.” In the orbit of a person revolving around their child, the movement of the body in question describes the caregiving relationship. Our bodies, when engaged in such orbits around one another, articulate something about who we are. By placing the circle as form in relation to representations of pregnancy, maternal care, and the body, this exhibition puts forth the circle not as a static structure but as a potential path, or orbit, for engagement with one another. These dynamic forms are produced by a body in time engaged in a particular practice - the varied orbit of care.
“A Path Described By A Body” draws endless connections between viewer and artist. It invites us to consider the elements and suggestions of forms contextualized within broader cyclical narratives of motherhood, caretaking, and creativity. We ask for audiences to listen to what these types of paths could have to say as we are brought into the work and worlds of an intimate network of artists in New Mexico, actualizing our collective strength as we follow the threads within their narratives to the cosmic realities connecting us all.