Mother with Child: A life-long collaboration

When a body becomes pregnant, both biological and neurological shifts occur. And though the child eventually obtains autonomy, the birthing parent is forever altered—even on the cellular level through fetal microchimerism. Artists have spoken to this tether, most notably Mary Kelly in Post-Partum Document (1973-79) where the work catalogs the relationship between Kelly and her son during the first six years of his life through a conceptual framework. Kelly has stated that the sensual connection between mother and child begins to lessen at around two years. It’s one of the reasons that the most common age gap between siblings is two to four years. Sensuality doesn’t implicitly mean sexuality- but a gratification of the senses. This paper will present three case studies of artists who created works several years after giving birth that incorporate phenomenological and sensorial attributes. Do artists deal with this potential loss by embedding their work with an indulgence of the senses? Is there a profound shift in artists’ practices after they have a child? And if so, can we begin to recognize this relationship as important as those with fellow artists? How can this predominantly unseen collaborator- the child- have a deep and profound impact on the lifelong practice of the artist?