64. Maternity in Feminist Art Practices

Maternity is of interest to feminist artists in not only the Global North but also the Global South. The catalogue for an exhibition titled “Motherhood: Paradox and Duality” at the South African National Gallery in 2025, while featuring engagements with the theme by South African artists alone, suggested some reasons for its wide interest: “motherhood is both a site of strength and a battleground of expectation” as well as “both a personal journey and a collective force shaping society”. Representations of motherhood also provide opportunities for critical engagements with relations of power and the politics of labour. In a contemporary world where liberal democracy is under threat and where traditionalist understandings of maternal roles may be deployed to counter women’s and LGBTQI+ rights, motherhood is a particularly relevant topic.

Focusing on art from the last two decades, made in any media and from any geography, this session asks how feminist visual practices challenge inherited or traditionalist understandings of mothering. Papers could feature works that address the uneven conditions under which mothering is demanded, withheld, exploited, mourned or refused. Among many other possibilities, contributions could consider reproductive labour, maternal grief, childlessness, reproductive technologies, queer maternity, mother/child relationships or the ways in which experiences of, for instance, migration, nationalism or gendered violence may shape maternal imaginaries. We welcome papers that engage with activist, Indigenous, Black, diasporic or postcolonial histories, or with other contextual factors shaping images of maternity

Themes: Maternity, feminism, contemporary art

Additional format comment: We envisage four 20-minute papers followed by five minutes of discussion.

Lead Convenor: Brenda Schmahmann, University of Johannesburg, South Africa

Co-convenors: Irene E Bronner, University of Johannesburg, South Africa

To submit a Paper to this Session, please follow the guidance on our website and complete the AAH 2027 Call for Papers Proposal Submission Form.