A Reflection on Mum Before Me

The Mum Before Me exhibition at the Jeannie Avent exhibition space asked 18 artists to represent who their mother was before she became a mother.

Each artist had a different method of sharing their mother’s story. Some just used one photo and a typed paragraph, another chose to include many artifacts from her life alongside the photos and a written history, while some choose to just use objects to represent their mothers without providing context.

Regardless of how each artist chose to present their mother’s story, the sun pouring into the Jeannie Avent gallery every day provided a spotlight for the images of these women. Each piece in the exhibition brings attention to the unique lives each woman lived.

Here are a few that have stuck with me:

Edori Fertig writes to her mother, Regina. In this letter, Fertig talks about Regina’s upbringing in the Bronx, her move to Long Island, and concluded with Fertig coming to terms that she will most likely always struggle with why she took her own life. To the left of this letter is a black and white portrait of Regina, happily smiling at the camera.

Piece by Edori Fertig

Liz Honeybone shares her mother’s story through photographs, documents, scraps of fabric and other small trinkets. These objects are accompanied by text about her mother, Anne Katherine, and her life. Honeybone uses the objects and text to show snapshots of her mother’s life, including her childhood illness and time spent in a sanitarium, past relationships before she met Honeybone’s father, and how a man she left behind sent a letter for Anne Katherine shortly after her death.

Piece by Liz Honeybone

Lulu Ditzel framed a Danish newspaper clipping of her mother, Nanna, and a chair she designed. Ditzel shares how her mother managed to secure a place in the furniture department of the Arts and Crafts School in Copenhagen, despite the gender barriers in her way. This piece also discusses the legacy her mother left, as Ditzel and her sisters carried on her furniture design business, and have chairs like the one in the photo in their homes.

Piece by Lulu Ditzel

I did not expect that I would be so moved before I visited this show. The stories I read and the lives I learned about lead me to think about how I would tell my own mother’s story. Realizing I wouldn’t know where to start, I took a mental note to ask more questions and do more digging the next time I saw her.

The Mum Before me exhibition ended on 13 March at the Jeannie Avent gallery, but there is one message that should be carried on beyond the show: A mother is more than just a mother, and we should not take them for granted.