« Nobody told me you might need a secret place where you can scream. »
- Hollie McNish, Nobody Told Me
Artist: Anaïs Kugel
Project: Mother Hoods
"In 2018, a red dress in my suitcase, I travelled back to Detroit where I used to be an exchange student as a teenager.
I started this ongoing project with my friend Holli Streetman and her daughter Penny. We were in high school together and she had recently become a mother. Since then, the red dress is being passed down from a woman to another. I chose it because I like how loud yet delicate it is. Simultaneously hiding and showing the bodies."
"I want to photograph emotions that mothers often hide. Emotions I had myself experienced when my child was born. Like feeling trapped in your own house, the overwhelming love, the chaos, or the yearning desire for your childfree past life. Motherhood contains multitudes.
This photographic series is an attempt to capture how this journey forever changes us, both physically and mentally. Leaving traces with various kind of shapes, from treasured memories to saggy breasts.
I was lucky to spent a lot of time with my grandmother before she passed away.
Talking for hours about her life as a mother of 5. My father was her first child, she was only 17 when he was born. Ever since her body had felt like a stranger, like it didn’t really belong to her anymore.
As of today, she is the last one to have worn the red dress."
© Anaïs Kugel
Curator / Editor : Márcia Pessoa