International Women’s Day – art explores pandemic parenting

A virtual exhibition of work opening on International Women’s Day and curated by Spilt Milk Gallery CIC includes art by over 40 international women and non-binary artists who have been mothering in the last year.

Part one launches today to explore the impact of the pandemic on mothers’ emotional, physical and psychological wellbeing.

Part two will be a call-to-action to a post-pandemic world “free of oppression”.

Ashley Cecil, ‘Take Shelter’, Acrylic and block printing on canvas, 48×48″

The United Nations has said that “unless we act now, the pandemic could set women’s rights back by decades”. The pandemic has meant that some inequalities and systems of oppression have surfaced. The artists present their unique mothering experience with all its challenges and look ahead to a “future where resilience, resistance and the elevation of motherhood can empower and inspire”.

Michelle Gallagher, ‘The ceiling is breaking’ ceramic, 20x13x9cm.

One of the artworks includes Lotte Bolster’s “Protection” a hand embroidered portrait of a masked mother holding her baby for the first time saying : “I so dearly wished to show him my face.”

Claudia Phares, ‘Motherwork i & ii’, photography, 100x120cm.

If Not Now, When?

Online exhibition March 8^th – April 11^th

Part 1 – www.spiltmilkgallery.com/exhibitions/if-not-now-when

Part 2 – www.spiltmilkgallery.com/exhibitions/if-not-now-when-part-2

Spilt Milk Gallery CIC is a social enterprise based in Edinburgh. They represent the work of artists who are mothers through their international membership network, online and pop-up exhibitions, and community art workshops. Due to Covid-19 all of their activities are currently taking place online.

Spilt Milk was founded in 2018 by Lauren McLaughlin; an Edinburgh based artist, curator and single mother.