Photograph: Dr Paula McCloskey presenting her lecture art, maternal and matrixial encounters at the Mother Voices midsummer eve's potlach and the launch of the Mother Voices foundation.

Abstract

Art, Maternal and Matrixial Encounters: was an invited talk I gave in Rotterdam, NL at the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art event with (m)Other voices. This research explores the research question below. It forms part of the ongoing iterative research which weaves through my arts practice and art writing. This research is located in my PhD research Art, Maternal and Matrixial Encounters (University of Sheffield, 2014). Working with maternity as a thinking apparatus and as integral to my practice is manifested in the collaborative arts practice ‘a place of their own’ (see link), and various distributed pieces of writing, talks and art projects. The concept of the matrixial recurs in this work, referring to artist and psychoanalyst Bracha Ettingers’ matrixial theory which explores the lasting legacy of the intrauterine encounter between the I (foetus in late stages of pregnancy) and non I (pregnant woman). Throughout this work the research question is: if maternity is taken to be a thinking apparatus, a concept, an encounter, as well as a lived experience what insights and new knowledge might emerge from arts practice and art writing that explores the complex entanglements of ‘maternity’ (in its broadest sense) and art?