Originally, Mother and Moon (2021) were included as part of the Everard Read Gallery in Conversation group exhibition, in June 2021.
Teresa Kutala Firmino and the artist Megan Leigh- Heilig participated together, where gallery artists invited fellow artists who are friends, acquaintances, or even strangers to producing an artwork to pair with one of their own. The resulting mirroring, tensions, and explorations used palette shared histories, themes, and subject matters to create pairs of artworks that function in conversation with each other, allowing for more nuanced perspectives on each artist’s practice. Both artists have at present been exploring notions of Motherhood, confronting their histories through their mother’s memories and the complexities of those memories.
The artist explains “By revisiting our mother’s past lives and recovering stories that might have otherwise been lost, unspoken or silenced the works look at being a woman, a mother and just being. Stories of motherhood and violence, power, and vulnerability are embedded in what it is to be a woman in a patriarchal society – the languages of protection, guilt, and sexualization we develop to survive. The stories of our mothers’ lives and the stories of their mothers shaped our world and how we see ourselves in it. This was the point of departure for our conversations. The traumas, victories, and everyday life that our mothers experienced affect the ways we continue to move in the world and the work we choose to make.”
