Lydia Atkinson Art

Did you know that your mother’s brain completely re-wired itself when she was pregnant? Have you ever really thought about the ways in which a mother’s sense of self, relationships, body, outlook on the world and priorities are impacted by having children? Have you ever heard the term matrescence? I hadn’t, until years after I had experienced it myself.

This word describes the social, emotional and biological transformation that takes place when a person becomes a mother; encompassing pregnancy, childbirth and perhaps the rest of our lives. It was first coined by anthropologists in the 1970’s, but has yet to be adopted into everyday language.

This webpage presents the documentation and artefacts from a socially engaged arts project, exploring the concept of matrescence through conversations, exchange, film-making and portraiture.

Spanning four months, and working with five participants, this project asked:

What does matrescence feel like? How did it impact our sense of self? How easy is it to speak openly about our experiences? How does creativity and art-making impact our mothering?

Please scroll to view a series of short films and highlights from the project.