MARTHA FLEMING-IVES @ A.P.E. GALLERY

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MARTHA FLEMING-IVES @ A.P.E. GALLERY

July 25th, 2017 by fstop

MARTHA FLEMING-IVES: ORDINARY DEVOTION
AUGUST 8 – 26, 2017

OPENING RECEPTION: AUGUST 11, 5-8PM

“Fleming-Ives’ photographs, taken with a medium format film camera, are largely confined to a quiet and still apartment, often cast with squares of warm afternoon light, and defined by objects relating both to a child’s development—rainbow toys strewn about the floor—and a mother’s—a guide to labor and childbirth entitled Birth. Fleming-Ives portrays both blissful interactions with her child alongside physiological stresses of post-pregnancy, and demonstrates motherhood as practiced and learned over time, rather than automatic and immediate upon a child’s birth. Layering meanings of “women’s work”—that of mother and that of artist—Fleming-Ives steps into the latter to illuminate the former, expanding the art historical theme of motherhood to include its effect on female identity, while newly exploring her own negotiation between the two roles. This idea is perhaps best articulated in the work Motherhood: The Reference Library, a shelf containing a collection of books that question what motherhood means to those who define themselves as mothers, and were meaningful to the artist while making this project.”

A.P.E. GALLERY
126 MAIN STREET
NORTHAMPTON, MA

Location: Massachusetts, United States Type: Exhibition

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