Birth forms boundaries, it begins a separation. It distinguishes child from parent, man from woman and the individual from the shared body. The foetus, so far a part of the mother, gains personhood in a fit of violence, the umbilical cord is cut and a permanent border drawn. Birth is a hidden and unclean procedure, not meant for other’s eyes: an amputation or an autopsy.
Painting birth is an exploration of in-betweenness, locking subjects in an unending pursuit of individuation from which they cannot ever fully emerge. I depict bodies unfit to labour, or unfit to care. The Mother as a character is defined by a refusal to fulfil her duty, a fundamentally independent being, forever trapped by having created something more individual than her, a son. All the while, the hermaphrodite, being complete themself, cannot create a further separation. A body not comprehensible as gendered does not function according to the logic of separation and of absence.
