Welcome to RCA2024

I am currently interested in the idea of “Matrescence”, or the process by which one becomes “mother”.  Having my child was the most transformational moment in my life.  It fundamentally changed everything I thought about my self, my identity, my history and my body.  The journey to her birth was arduous and, at times, incredibly dehumanizing, but then the joy, oh the joy of having her!

My research project for the MFA centred on the experience of Matrescence. The journey to motherhood is explored through its parallels to the Passion of Christ in the first two parts of a series of hand-embroidered silk appliqué paintings entitled “Stations”. The sense of being consumed by this identity, of being lost to the needs of another, is explored in the sculptural work “Oblivion”. The delicate act of building a loving partnership under the strains of caring for a newborn is explored in “Every moment is…”. The all-encompassing desire for a child as time “runs out” is at the heart of the triptych “Again and again”. And finally on the screen are two of my latest projects. First, the film “In my mother’s dimple” thinks through the bodies of mother and child as containing archives of one another. This is followed by an experimental sound-work, “Meditation Music: Laundry”, which is a test-bed output for a series of workshops I’m hoping to produce with new mothers. In the workshops, I want to explore maternal relations to time spent maintaining a family and how we might recontextualise it from arduous monotony to a time of mattering.

Please select an image below for more information on each work. I have also included a selection of writing I have produced this year, which has informed the artworks made.

If you have any comments about the work or would like to share your experience of it with me, I would love to hear from you. Please click the button below to drop me an email, or feel free to say “Hi” if I’m lingering amongst the objects!

I’m so grateful for your time and consideration,

Much love,

Nelson