A new exhibition, Alternative Maternals, brings together an international group of female artists to examine motherhood from a variety of angles for an engaging, provocative show at London Southbank University. The exhibition will be held at the London South Bank University, 103
Borough Road, London SE1 0AA, and run from June 1 to June 8, with a private view 1 June 1, 6.30–8.30 P.M. Gallery hours for the show are
Wednesday–Friday 1pm to 5pm and Saturday 12pm to 5pm. Dr Laura
González, artist and lecturer at the Glasgow School of Art, curated the
The seven artists of Alternative Maternals use a variety of media, including performance, photography, video, and sculptural objects to
investigate the maternal experience from a variety of perspectives.
Each artist’s work uniquely challenges, in its own way, the common
characteristics by which maternal expressions are known. In doing so,
the exhibition raises issues of absence, rejection, memory, legacy,
scandal, autonomy, and the physical body.
The artists challenge the language associated with maternity through
intimate, in-depth investigations of this essential bond. Their work
questions cultural dismissals of the mother as a valid anchor for
artistic expression, while embracing a conceptual artistic framework
and rejecting tendencies toward simplifying the meaning of motherhood and mother/child relationships.
Alternative Maternals offers provocative insights into becoming, being
and having a mother. The maternal experience emerges as it has
rarely been seen before in the work of the exhibit’s artists to reveal
what we have too long taken for granted.