Life-giving

In October 2022, I became a mum for the second time - I had a daughter. This experience made me think about duty, sacrifice, humility and inner unfreedom, as well as about the balance between motherhood and other roles of a woman, about the need for dialogue between women in the family.

I realised that I was repeating the scripts of women of my own kind - putting duty and obedience above my own desires. This caused me to protest: ‘I am too!’

In my work, I explore myself as a person, moving beyond the role of a mother of two. Using self-portraits, created sculptures and archival family photographs, I address my own feelings and experiences. This process becomes a way for me to safely live through difficult situations and experiment with new behaviours, bypassing the fear of making mistakes.

Historically, a woman was valued only for her ability to give birth, raise children and maintain a household. Her desires were ignored and her freedom restricted. Today, this has been replaced by standards of appearance and behaviour that create a new framework that prevents women from being themselves.