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300
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https://www.artistparentindex.com/files/original/9e1104e61d059a720769b7d52ca2beec.jpg
9e9bda35945a74a8607230e2d0ed11c4
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Artist Parent Index
Person
An individual.
Website
The Artist's website
<a href="http://laurenfrancesevans.com/">http://laurenfrancesevans.com/</a>
Medium
sculpture
collage
video
installation
Location
The location of the interview
Birmingham
Alabama
USA
Artist Statement
As an artist, I am intrigued by the materiality of the flesh and believe it to function as a microcosm that points to various aspects of the immaterial human experience. Years before ever becoming a parent, I was already fascinated by the spiritual and cosmic significance of the human belly button and its relationship to the creative act. As a child I pulled at mine, trying to flip it inside out. Years later, as a graduate student, I poured plaster into it regularly, making castings of its negative space. The belly button is the first mark that life leaves on the body; it is a scar that points to our origins.
Many creation myths describe our world as originating from a central point. The Greek term omphalos (navel) can refer to various symbolic centers that are believed to connect the earthly and divine. Just as the human belly button marks our connection to (and inevitable separation from) our mothers, these so-called navels of the world are often associated with myths of cosmic origin, functioning as physical markers of the very sites at which our earth was supposedly born into existence. This symbolism can be found across cultures and religions: ziggurats, temples, holy mountains, the tree of life, and more.
I’m excited and inspired by the navel, umbilical cord, and placenta as both site and symbol of the simultaneity that is embedded in the human experience. Questions of origin and existence are constantly shaping how I think about my creative work, and my belief is that the work of the artist, and perhaps especially the mother artist, is primarily ontological. Just as the human belly button marks both a connection to and a separation from our physical origins, the work that I make points to a similar simultaneity of opposites, referencing the body’s attraction and repulsion but also the immaterial void of human longing in us all.
Before becoming a mother, I thought of attachment and separation as psychologies experienced by the child. I didn’t realize until experiencing it firsthand that, not unlike the blood circulating through the placenta, these psychologies very much go both ways. I’ve been thinking a lot about this entanglement and have been working it out in a recent body of work. At times I imagine vividly that my daughter and I are still connected by this cord. It’s a tug of war. Often, I tug at the cord, longing for my independence from her, and more often than not, she tugs to bring me closer, unwilling to let me exist apart from her.
Topic
pregnancy
breastfeeding
let down reflex
placenta
umbilical cord
belly button
knots
faith
religion
christianity
attachment
extended breastfeeding
creative act
origins
symbolic centers
Virgin Mary
Christ
breastmilk
breast milk miscarriage
birth and death
birth
artist mother
artist parents
art
artist network
artist/mother
artist/parent/academic
bedsharing
cosleeping
body
bodies
boundaries
devine feminine
early motherhood
early parenthood
education
embodied motherhood
embroidery
family and career
female body
feminist
gestation
lactation
Madonna
maternal
materiality
milk
nursing
pieta
subjectivity
teaching
ritual
Exhibitions
Exhibitions in the Index that an artist has participated in. The two entries will be linked.
Wrapped Up, Tied Up, Tangled Up – solo – 2019 – Samford Art Gallery – Samford University – Birmingham, AL
ArtFields – 2019 - The ROB – Lake City, SC
Art|Mother – Unfinished Business Art Show – 2019 – Los Angeles, CA
Are We There Yet? – CIVA Juried Exhibition (forthcoming - June) – 2019 – Johnson Gallery– Bethel University – St. Paul, MN
Simultaneous Letdown – solo – 2019 (forthcoming - October) – Gatewood Gallery – University of North Carolina, at Greensboro – Greensboro, NC
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Lauren Frances Evans
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https://www.artistparentindex.com/files/original/7be9d42c6621aed4dd2891926803b603.png
abbefbc5fb6ad97865859a8553e0b502
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Resource Library
Book
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Author
Mary Kelly
Publisher
Routledge & Kegan Paul
Date of Publication
1983
ISBN 13
9780710094957
ISBN 10
0710094957
Topic
art and motherhood
feminist art
mother-child relationship
maternal desire
maternal identity
Lacan
formation of a mother
embodied motherhood
motherhood as social construct
language
acquisition of language
psychoanalysis
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Post-partum Document
acquisition of language
embodied motherhood
formation of a mother
Lacan
language
Mary Kelly
maternal identity
mother/child relationship
postpartum
postpartum document
psychoanalysis
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https://www.artistparentindex.com/files/original/ada51dd5e24c72999af6748c0d35279f.png
bcffe147fb052182f998c83b5cb15c36
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Resource Library
Book
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Editor
<a href="http://www.artistparentindex.com/items/show/199" target="_blank">Myrel Chernick</a>
Jennie Klein
Publisher
Demeter Press
City of Publication
Bradford
Province of Publication
Ontario
Country of Publication
Canada
Date of Publication
May 11, 2011
ISBN 13
978-0986667121
ISBN 10
0986667129
Topic
motherhood
art
mother artists
embodied motherhood
ideology of motherhood
visual culture
art and mothering
caretaking
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The M Word: Real Mothers in Contemporary Art
artist mothers
embodied motherhood
feminism
motherhood
mothering
mothers
mothers and art
visual culture
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https://www.artistparentindex.com/files/original/e3bcc2ffa84da728f160026030dccd08.png
64b49192a1c6ce3b24318751636f291b
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Resource Library
Book
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Author
Adrienne Rich
Publisher
W. W. Norton & Company
Date of Publication
October 1, 1976
ISBN 13
9780393312843
ISBN 10
0393312844
Topic
feminism
gender
birth
feminist theory
embodied motherhood
patriarchy
institution of motherhood
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution
birth
embodied motherhood
feminism
feminist theory
gender
institution of motherhood
patriarchy