Franco-Manitoban artist Dominique Rey says that the universal nature of motherhood is often overlooked, like much of womens’ art. But in her first solo show at the the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Rey attempts to shed a light on the deep, and everchanging relationship from which we all come.
Part of her inspiration came when her husband, at an artists residency with Dominique and their infant daughter, caught a photo of their silhoettes as they moved into the sunlight; showing Rey bending and moving to support her daughter’s movements, leaning into and away from her.
“In the personal day to day lives of so many mothers and families with young children (and older children too, she adds) with the intensity of that relationship being at the heart of their life, I often talk of the ‘ecstasy to agony,’ and everything in between,” she says. “Those extremes might shift in a spit second or happen in a simultaneous way.”
“The mother stands in for the ground, the soil, the armature, often a jungle gym, the neccessity to be a stable force and yet, in the midst of that, balance is always at stake, and really hard to achieve,” she says.
The myriad of configurations are visible in static forms as you walk through the gallery, but Rey also invites us into the inner realms of motherhood, and continues to explore its negotiations. In video representations, using the juxtapositions of matching fabric bodysuits, Rey captures a continuous energy, an original language and dance through her (mother) space; like planetary bodies circling around each other.
And yet, as Rey also reveals, in our society today, where we have maternity leave, “such a massive benefit,” she says, much of that time is spent in isolation, and loneliness. “The way our society is constructed those moments of being with community can feel few and far between.”
Rey didn’t want her work to be perceived through a traditional lens or romanticised, or seen as nostalgic. “ I think women artists are often pidgenholed when they take on a subject matter that is specific to their lives. It’s seen as marginal instead of universal.”
Although most of Rey’s art for Motherground doesn’t reveal the facial expressions that have been the hallmark of images depicting motherhood, there is still a sense of joy and wonderment in the entaglements her artworks express. She also expressed an appreciation of the moments her husband helped her to capture, and their children for their participation in the creation of the show. Motherground includes spaces for children to move and explore in the gallery setting that are reminiscent of Niki de Saint Phalle. “The complexity of our lived bodies, the capacity to create life, if you are born with a female biology these are incredible universal foundational realities, but in the framework of our society, the gaze isn’t focused on that,” she says.
To be a mother, or to see a mother is to “enter the body, to enter creation,” says Rey. “All of those possible readings are invited and encouranged and many a discerning eye will figure that out.” MOTHERGROUND: Dominique Rey with Madeleine and Auguste Coar runs until January 2025