Pollux Awardee

Maternal Mitochondria’s project “Original Face: In the Water” is a part of the 19th Edition of the Pollux Awards, which will be followed by a show at FotoNostrum’s gallery in December of 2023. All of the winners in various categories can be found here. Look for us in Non-Professional: Nude and Figure!

“Original Face” is a long-term photography project documenting the female members of my family and placing them in collaged environments which speak to the sublime, the doors of life and death opening and closing, and the perspective of the hidden v the seen. When the male gaze is removed, what is left? Is this the female gaze, the gaze of the self-portrait? Who is the subject and who is the object. What does it mean to have a self, a no self, an existential void within an embodied subject.

This project was made in collaboration with my mother, the poet Miriam Sagan. We work together as “Maternal Mitochondria,” handing the camera back and forth, writing back and forth. Therefore the patriarchal hierarchy of artistic endeavor is broken, and the matrilineal line is strengthened. This is how we see ourselves and each other. This is how we see.

Woman Made Gallery

I will be in an upcoming show at Woman Made Gallery in Chicago! The 24th International Open runs from March 18th-April 22nd, and all of the work can be viewed online as well. Please contact the gallery for sale inquires.

Foto Forum Santa Fe Members’ Show!

Catch the annual Foto Forum Santa Fe Members’ Show! The opening reception will be Friday February 3rd, 5pm to 7pm. The show will be up until the end of March. For more information, visit Foto Forum’s website.

A small face peers out from between two legs in this black and white photograph. The dip of a navel, curve of the stomach, and v of a vulva are also visible.

Pecha Kucha Talk

Maternal Mitochondria presents “Seeing with Each Other’s Eyes,” as part of Vol. 15 of Creative Santa Fe’s Pecha Kucha Nights, “Perception.” Click on the link above to view the 6′ 40″ video, featuring visual art and spoken word poetry.

Pecha Kucha Night in Santa Fe

Maternal Mitochondria will be speaking at SITE Santa Fe on November 10th at 6pm. Reservations are required, however the talk will also be available online a few weeks after the event. You can reserve your seat on the Creative Santa Fe website.

The Spell: The Magic of Words and Imagery


The Spell is an upcoming show in the Visual Arts Gallery at Santa Fe Community College, showcasing work by Maternal Mitochondria. I’m really excited to showing at my alma mater and with so many local artists whom I admire!

Opens: Thursday, October 6th, from 4-6pm

Closes: Thursday, December 8th

Current Shows

I am currently in 2 shows that can be viewed online, with some other powerhouse work!

Through the Eye: Women in Photography with Womenswork.Art in Poughkeepsie, NY.

And a particularly exciting online show with Shaping the Figural Gaze.

ARTIST STATEMENT VIDEO

An online response to Bustes de Femmes

“The Gagosian states that the selected group of “paintings, sculptures, and photographs on view demonstrate how the female figure has been reimagined and reconfigured by modern and contemporary artists of diverse backgrounds and traditions,” however, it features only 5 female-identifying artists out of 28 artists total. Of these 28 artists, a majority are white. This leads to an exhibit that not only is lacking in a diversity of backgrounds and traditions, but one that is also blatantly ignoring the conjunctions between race and gender.

Unfortunately, the exhibit put on by the Gagosian is only too representative of past and current norms surrounding the viewpoints society platforms for creation and consumption surrounding the figural.

We wish to counter Bustes de Femmes and the other of 1000s of exhibits like it, by presenting the works of femxle and queer identifying artists whose skill in figural portraiture demonstrates a diverse array of contemporary visions, sensitivities, and/or ideals, that usurp or unconventionally assume the traditional utilization of the male and/or dominant gazes. The goal is to address institutionalized gender roles and gendered racial stereotypes, and the subsequent sexism and racism perpetuated by them. This is in order to facilitate the interrogation and examination of the traditional motives and depictions of gender and sex, while proposing new or uncommon narratives. These ideas will be addressed from queer and femxle perspectives that are traditionally unheard from, in order to reimagine and reconstruct traditional racialized and gendered power structures upon which these institutionalized spaces were built and thrive. This is in order to combat the unequal ratio of queer and femxle art and perspectives that are being showcased within the museum and art worlds via institutions.”

Interviews

In this time of social distancing, we’ve done several interviews! First is a Cline’s Corner interview with Miriam Sagan where she discusses our new fairy house installation, and second Miriam and Isabel were interviewed by Creative at the Wheel on feminism and their artistic collaboration. We hope you enjoy listening!