The Line Between Us: the Maternal Relation in Contemporary Photography

About the exhibition
The Line Between Us explored the intimate, emotional and complex relationships between mothers and their children, as captured through the medium of photography. The exhibition was an extension of guest curator Kyla McFarlane’s recently submitted PhD thesis, which examined the intersections of photography, psychoanalysis and feminism between the 1980s and 2003.

Traversing varied subject matter from children’s playful performances (Anne Noble, Polixeni Papapetrou), to darker narratives concerning the abject (Pat Brassington), the carnal (Anne Ferran) and loss (Donna Bailey), the exhibition framed the photograph as a space of both maternal connection and distance—a site mediated by the body and the gaze of the mother–photographer behind the camera.

MUMA Online Exhibition Archive
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^{Image: Anna Noble, Ruby's Room #9 (detail), 2000–02, pigment on archival paper, 66.8 x 100 cm. Courtesy the artist and Bartley Nees Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand}