MOTHER MARY ATABEY, YOU GAVE ME TOO MUCH, 2021

Pine, fired clay, twine. 42" x 48" x 30"

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Mother Mary Atabey, You Gave Me Too Much- is a subversive figure foregrounding the extractive arrangement of maternal labor often naturalized and glorified through healthy, pious-looking figurines exampled from early the Paleolithic Venus, Dominican Taino goddess Atabey, to institutional Catholic mother of the Messiah. But, unfortunately, idyllic figures of motherhood, excluding the very essence of maternal labor, do little to honor and recognize the sacrifices mothers make. Moreover, by superimposing the female form with the loom, a tool centered within districts of female textile labor, the sculpture complicates conversations around compensation, the body politic, and the lore that originates from the loom relating to fertility, matrimony, care, and communal exchange across cultures. The beads are but the "minor moment" that maternal labor is often relegated. But, the act of hand-formed each with intimate care is in no way minor.