New exhibition charts motherhood from the 15th century to today

The NGV's exhibition Mother draws extensively on works from existing collections, as it celebrates and explores what it means to be a mother. (Supplied) Link copiedShareShare articlePrimal and glorious. Expected but unsupported. Nag and nurse. Motherhood is often cast in contradictions, so it makes sense the new National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) exhibition Mother welcomes visitors with a contrasting pair of images. Front and centre of the entrance to the space upstairs at Ian Potter Centre is a 15th-century oil painting of Madonna and Child by Giovanni Toscani and right next to it, a 1998 conical birth mat by East Arnhem Land artist Elizabeth Birritjama Ngalandjarri. "It's such an amazing opportunity to bring things together that have never been shown in the same context before" says co-curator Sophie Gerhard, herself a mother. "We see the Virgin Mary in her white, beautiful purity. But then we ask what impact did that have on women's bodies and birthing practises when Christianity came to Australia? They are lovely works, but also bigger conversations," she says. The entrance to the exhibition provides visitors with seemingly contrasting images of mothering, which still share a universal thread. (Supplied) Much like previous shows like Queer in 2022 and Cats and Dogs in 2025, Mother is curated almost entirely from the NGV's existing collection. It traverses the "life cycle" of a mother, from matrescence (the transition to motherhood) through to the giving of care, making of magic and and on to loss and grief. Telling the story of motherhood through the NGV collection has given the exhibition a distinctly local framing. "There's been a few exhibitions on motherhood launched overseas and we were thinking about that in an NGV context and what we could add. We saw a real opportunity, especially in the light of these other shows overseas which did not have any kind of First Nation stories included," says co-curator Katharina Prugger, who was pregnant during the creation of the show. Among the few new acquisitions is a work by Melbourne artist Kate Just. A finely knitted chain mail armour for her adopted child Harper is called An Armour of Hope (2012), and captures both the fears and hopes when a mother is born, however she comes into it. Kate Just's An Armour Of Hope is a symbol of maternal protection. (Supplied) In an email to Prugger last year Just wrote: "The work An Armour of Hope strangely began the day I met Harper and shook his hand as a two-year-old joining our family for the first time. "In that moment, I felt and saw an image of Harper in soft armour in my mind's eye. I think I recognised the difficulty Harper had already been through, but also noted a keen receptivity to new connections and bonds." Fibre arts and textiles are threaded throughout the show — no surprise when you consider the overlapping worlds of craft and motherhood. Take, for example, Quandamooka artist Kyra Mancktelow's work One Continuous String (2021). G'ua G'ua, Erub, Mer woman Destiny Deacon used photos and videos in her work to break down Indigenous tropes and stereotypes. (Supplied: National Gallery of Victoria, purchased from the Estate of Destiny Deacon) Mancktelow took the pattern of a cotton dress her grandmother was forced to wear at Moongalba (Myora mission) and made a replica using her grandmother's weaving technique. Other prominent First Nations contributions to the show come from the late great Destiny Deacon whose 1987 work Home Video playfully subverts the trope of a bad Black mother, and Hannah Brontë's Eye Hear U Magik, which pays homage to intergenerational spiritual knowledge. From Davida Allen's witty 1989 lithograph Baby to John Lorimer's oil painting of a 17th-century colonial maid of colour tending to a white child, there are hugely varying experiences of motherhood to see and feel through the show. Davida Allen, whose 1989 lithograph Baby is part of the exhibition, has created numerous works centred around the concept of family. (Supplied) Birth, nursing, drudgery, longing and play all find expression here. Photography and video are also prominent throughout. These realistic glimpses have become essential parts of domestic life, making invisible work visible and capturing how warped time can feel in families. An earthenware feeding bottle from Staffordshire in 1850 is displayed alongside vintage and antique prams, toys and clothing. Does the show capture every facet of motherhood? No show could, especially one that relies so heavily on existing collections. There are also some omissions of how we parent now — IVF didn't seem hugely visible, for example. It's hard not to imagine a different show had the budget been stretched to include more new acquisitions. But, as Gerhard says, it is a meaningful show for so many. "It's been amazing to develop something where the work is really so relevant to people's lives," she says. "Usually work in contemporary art, you're looking at so

New exhibition charts motherhood from the 15th century to today

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