Mothering (smothering) it’s your most important role! It stretches you in all directions… it pulls you inside out.

Becoming a mother can leave a woman with ambivalent feelings towards motherhood as she is forced to come to terms with complex emotions very quickly, often in extreme circumstances, and often in isolation.  We are peddled a perfect, unattainable image of motherhood, in advertising and media of all descriptions, but it is common to feel angry, sad, overwhelmed, insecure, and more, and we find ourselves questioning whether we should be feeling these emotions at all. The most powerful proponent of these unrealistic expectations is organized religion, forming the backbone of most cultures worldwide and giving us the “Idealized Mother”.  No one can live up to it, but we all continue to try………and if we don’t, or when the realities of being a mother leave us with feelings of guilt, can this guilt be used constructively? Is it possible to love your children but hate the auspice of motherhood?

Inside-Out refers to the internal experience and conflict. Desperate Artwives artists will pull apart these experiences of internal conflict and will articulate them, with courage, through performance art and live action.

Desperate Artwives want to inspire women to engage in Mothering without apology!

In Addition, for the first time ever, Desperate Artwives will also begin a week long impromptu pop-up takeover of the gallery ‘Outside In’ between the 3rd and 7th of July, where a group of women artitsts who are also mothers will stay on at the gallery. Aiming to give this group of artists visibility and validity within an art world that often negaes this party and topic.

When: Saturday 30th June from 6:30pm

Where: Leyden Gallery, Spitalfields

Who: Women Artists Mothers

What: Takeover the Gallery in the shape of performance and live action

Why: To help identify and encourage women to come to terms with being human!