#MotherWorks celebrates IWD and Womens History Month at Brixton Library Gallery
Brixton Library Gallary hosting MotherWorks.
To celebrate International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, the MotherWorks exhibition was on display in Brixton Library Gallery for all of March 2020. (Well, until we all had to go home and stay there.)
MotherWorks is very much a Brixton based endeavour. Fiona Freund the photographer and innovator of the project has lived here all her adult life and many of the first mums to be photographed and the amazing Mothers of Invention who helped launch the original exhibition all live here too.
So bringing the exhibition to the beautiful gallery space of Brixton Library, felt like coming home.
With help from the wonderful Mothers of Invention and Ros Black (bottom right) who runs the gallery, we hung 26 A1 prints and accompanying mothers stories on March 1st.
We need all hands on deck to hang the 26 A1 prints and the mums stories. We were aided and abetted by the wonderful Rossella Black who runs this space and brings art to all of Lambeth’s libraries and appears with her daughter in the exhibition. The huge high ceilings and bright daylight from the west facing windows light the images brilliantly.
For International Women’s Day itself, March 8th, we host a creative day. Mums and families, are invited to join us for a day of making, growing and up-cycling and to be celebrated for everything they do. Mums are the heart of Brixton.
Getting creative on International Women’s Day March 8th.
Local artist Claire Dorey hosts a postcard making workshop, creating a giant community artwork, on show in the library for the next month.
Garden design and maintenance company, Sprout Up, run a gardening workshop for children and parents. Showing easy planting you can do at home and helping more people to connect with nature, whatever space they have.
Fabulous, crafty lady Julia Nieto shows us how to turn old glass jars into beautiful pots of flowers - just in time for Mother’s Day.
We partner with The Circle charity who raise money and awareness around the issues facing women globally.
Then on March 12th, just before lockdown we had what we now know was ‘the last party’. We hosted a fabulous event in Brixton Library Gallery in partnershitp with Carter Mills local family orientated property business, and Wainwright&Cummins local solicitors. The amazing Actionettes performed to a packed house, the poignent Poem Not Just a Mother written by the briliant Lulu Lincoln from Teaching Mums was read by the very talented Fari Gee, we drank cocktails and danced, and a very good time was had by all. Untill the next time xxx
Private View and Book Launch (From top left clockwise) The Actionettes, meeting of minds, making of speeches, signing of books.
Here’s how Leslie Manasseh writing in the Brixton Bugle describes Fiona’s work:
“Exploring and describing a role which is too often taken for granted, and seen as less important than paid work, she wants to show that mothers have multi-tasking skills which are second to none.
Her images represent women as mothers and professionals at the same time. They are bright, busy, and amusing. Domestic scenes have been turned into compelling visual tableaux – each one a glimpse into a hectic world.
She has very cleverly both composed a shot and made it appear spontaneous. But the real genius is that each photo is part of a story – a single sentence which leaves you wondering about the rest of the paragraph.
Many of them show scenes of domestic disorder which you know the mother concerned is going to have to clear up while remaining constantly vigilant about their children’s needs and behaviour. They also capture the frustrations, tolerance, chaos and above all, love, that is part of family life.”
Read the full article here Brixton Blog. Listen to the interview Fiona gave to Patricia Vincent at Resonance Radio and interviews with some of the mums and Mothers of Invention at the Private view here
And a big thank you to our sponsors.
