Helen Johnson
A Mother, 2019
Acrylic and pencil on canvas
198 x 137 cm
78 x 54 in
78 x 54 in
Further images
This work was as reluctant to be born as my daughter. What does it mean for a body to be stretched to the edges and opened out in this way...
This work was as reluctant to be born as my daughter. What does it mean for a body to be stretched to the edges and opened out in this way – is it a body colonising the space of other bodies, or is it a body open and empathetic and generous, or can it be both of those things? The mother’s body here houses layered acts of violence and splitting; it is ambiguous whether they are being wrought upon her, or whether she is bringing them into being, or both. It felt necessary to allow this ambiguity to swim about, not to force it to land on one side or the other. The spiral goes upwards and downwards at once. The mother is tender and complicit.