mamafesto
formed in 2020. Created by S. and R. Eyes, gestures towards transforming both mothering/caring and artistic practice to make anew. For this project, we propose a self-identification of mother, motherhood, mothering, and the maternal to include those who identify as women, 2SLGTBQIA+, with a focus on keeping the experiences of all those who identify as mothers visible, regardless of whether they have birthed a child from their body.
It is a self-recognition of being a mother that we support to whoever wishes to be defined as such.
S.
is a parent artist who loves creating collaboratively with family, plants, and humans. Sometimes an educator, most times a learner, S. enjoys Pre-K to Adult art educational experiences. S. is an alum of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the National University of Ireland, Galway, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. S. has participated in international group and solo juried exhibitions and has art housed in two permanent collections. More recently, S.’s art practice has been centered in collaborative art engagements with a post-growth mindset that is ecoartistic and exhibiting in art spaces that are free and more easily assessable, generally without permission.
R. Eyes
is a collective that collaborates to learn from and with each other while making art.
art experiences—exhibitions
R. Eyes, sfMOMa,
non-commissioned instillation
at SFMOMA, 08/28/2021
R. Eyes, plant after reading,
non-commissioned/permissioned instillation around Berkeley, CA, USA 04/2020- Current
S. (2021, July 5-8). Plant After Reading: Rubbish, recyclables, and seeds as a medium for aesthetic expression of environmental concerns in an arts-based research experiment during Covid-19. International Joint Conference of the International Society for Ecological Economics, and the European Society for Ecological Economics. University of Manchester (UK).
S. (2021, May). The maternal body in contemporary art. Invited lecture at MAWA Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art. Winnipeg, MB (Canada).
gratitude
to those who have, are, and will wake up throughout the night to feed a newborn.
We thank you, we think of you.
We think of your body, regardless of whether you have physically carried or birthed a child, we think of all who identify as a mother.
We think of your body, and how it has shaped the present and what will be the future of this world.
We think about how to create
more
time and space
for
mothers.
But most importantly, we are grateful for those who have come before us and shared their body; their body of knowledge, the most valuable and important knowledge in this world; the knowledge of how to care for and raise a human. We honor and celebrate that all that is in this world, is from another’s body.