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by Adeline de Monseignat (Author), Andrée Bober (Author)
Explores de Monseignat's sculptures reflecting matrescence, birth, intimacy, and maternal transformation.
Motherhood in Four Acts is a publication about the sculptures and sculptural installations of Mexico-based artist Adeline de Monseignat (b. 1987, Monaco). It is also a publication about the artist's experiences of matrescence--the process of becoming a mother--and how these experiences are interwoven with her recent sculptural works.
Inspired by a theatrical production or play, the publication is structured in four acts. The first, titled "Earth" presents the work Seedscape, which takes the form of smooth, rounded "seeds" carved from sand-colored travertine, exploring themes of the seed and its potential for life, the earth and fertility, pregnancy and the womb. The publication features documentation of three presentations of the work, culminating on the rooftop terrace of the Museo MARCO in Monterrey, Mexico, in Monseignat's exhibition Enceinte (Pregnant).
The second act, entitled "Fire", presents the sculpture Uketamo, which considers the experience of giving birth, the emptiness of the womb post-partum, and coming to terms with the newborn's separation from the umbilical cord. Comprising an outdoor sculptural installation launched in 2024 at Casa Wabi Foundation's Sabino site, the artist employs tezontle--a volcanic rock--to create mounds with empty spaces inside and mirrors at their bases, reflecting the sky. Seeming to emerge out of the gravel-covered ground, these mounds and cavities resemble volcanoes after an eruption, bringing fertile minerals out of the fires deep underground and into the air of the earth's surface.
The third act, "Air", documents the body of work Skin to Skin, presented at Colector Gallery in Monterrey in 2023-24. The works evoke notions of a mother's intimate first contacts with their baby, the proximity between them, the bringing together of their flesh, and breathing together. The sculptures that comprise this series juxtapose white travertine--a form of sedimentary rock--and polished bronze, as if mother and newborn are holding each other's bodies close, almost wrapped around one another.
The final act, "Water", revolves around the work Aurum, representing breastfeeding and the sense of the mother's body producing and releasing milk and other fluids. In the work, a mother's breasts take the form of a fountain, both a vessel and provider. "I remember feeling like I was liquifying, no exaggeration. My body had transmuted into one big vessel", explains the artist. A bronze version of the work, replete with basin and flowing water, was on show at MASA Galería in Mexico City in 2023.
The four bodies of work are discussed in a thoughtful and thought-provoking essay by Andrée Bober, curator and founding director of Landmarks, the public art program of the University of Texas at Austin. Along with a foreword by Adeline de Monseignat, each act features text entries providing background information to the works and contexts in which they have been shown. Edited by Katharine Jaensch and designed by Gabriela Bustillos, this hardback publication features texts in both English and Spanish, with translations by Jimena Lechuga. The publication was made possible with the support of Colector, Monterrey, Houston, Dallas.
