MOTHER (2020-2021)
Digital Medium Format, Archival Pigment Prints
Grid of 80 images, 17x22” each, 8x32’ total
ON THIS PAGE:
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Mother Installation, 8 ft x 32 ft., Edgar Heap of Birds Family Gallery, Lawrence, KS. (Click to enlarge.)
project statement
The rural cemetery became popular in the mid-nineteenth century as health concerns from overcrowding pushed burial grounds outside the city. And so it seemed fitting that during the forced isolation of the early-pandemic I would social-distance at Oak Hill, the rural cemetery just up the road from me at the edge of my Kansas town.
Like most rural cemeteries, this landscape was also designed as a Romantic park-like space for visitors to convene with a Nature seen as separate from society. Here, during months of solitary walks, I was confronted with time, loss, alienation, and the nature of an enmeshed world. Over the years many of the tombstones have joined with the Earth, and I am struck by the remains of those bearing simply the name Mother—anonymous women memorialized only by the way they related in life to others. Rearranging this patriarchal symbol into repetition during a time of collective estrangement, I also read a primal cry for secure connection, and location markers for an essential home place.
As the world began to re-open, I traveled to New York, my once-adopted city, and photographed in Brooklyn’s Green-Wood cemetery, after which Oak Hill was modeled, and where I found the same mother stones. I made these pictures over the course of a year, one full cycle of seasons.
PROJECT PORTFOLIO
Click image link below to view the body of work.
SELECTED DOCUMENTATION
DOCUMENTATION OF SELECT EXHIBITIONS AND PUBLICATIONS
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While in residency at ISCP I screened a two-minute timelapse video work of mothers stones changing across seasons. The screening was part of a New York city-wide weeklong collection of public arts and culture events.
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INVITED. Curated by Rinat Sherzer, faculty at Parsons School of Design, to celebrate the neglected wisdom of the egg and honor nature’s cycles. Due to pandemic pivots, a virtual exhibition launched on International Women’s Day in the New School’s XReality Center. Four of my images were included in the virtual exhibition.
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JURIED. An online exhibition and physical exhibition catalog, juried by Qiana Mestrich, artist, writer, and founder of the blog and arts initiative Dodge & Burn: Decolonizing Photography History. Six of my Mother images were selected for inclusion in the exhibition and catalog.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
PUBLICATIONS
2022 Elise Kirk, Mother, P&T Publications, Lawrence, KS (Monograph, Forthcoming)
EXHIBITIONS
2021 NYC Homecoming, ISCP International Studio & Curatorial Program, Brooklyn, NY
2021 What Would The Egg Do, The New School XReality Center, New York, NY, Virtual Exhibition
2020 You Are Not Wonderful Just Because You Are a Mother, Artist/Mother Podcast, Virtual Exhibition (Juror: Qiana Mestrich) (catalog)
RESIDENCIES
2021 International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP), New York (June - August) (continued work while in residence)