Alix Deane

While motherhood refers to be a mother of a child, it is also indicative of carrying the spirit and capacity to be a mother. Expanding this concept informs my research. My work engages with the cyclical nature of life as it pertains to time, birth, and mortality. This research takes into question my own lived experience identifying as queer and nonbinary. As a childbearing-aged body, I am interested in the relationship between biological reproductive health and how environmental pollution affects it.

 

Body scan comes from a deep-seated longing to one day be a mother. Fear, hesitation, and the primal urge to reproduce are part of a biological pool of desire which are in conflict with the current climate. Oscillating between the inside of the body and the riverbed that overlays the watershed of my upbringing, this exhibition blends two key biological structures together––the reproductive and hydrologic system. These two narratives which are frequently understood to be disparate spaces—join together to emphasize the ways in which they are tied. 

​

As a river’s currents flow into urban areas, the health and wellness of its habitat is compromised. Envisioning the reproductive system as a river, the fimbriae that guide the egg from the ovary to the fallopian tube become the headwaters. The womb is the delta. Body scan ties land to precious organs by references to histology, dicom imaging, and field sampling. Following the river current, I map veins and tissues, and streams and deltas as a mechanism to combine body and land. 

​

The littoral zone­­––the edge where water and land meet––is a space of protection and erosion. In my research I assign this transitional region to be the cervix. Castings of this space composed of glass and aluminum are in conversation with photographic positives and negatives. Each is scaled to the approximate size of my abdomen. Using historic non-camera and analogue processes, I work with objects such as river sediment, fallen leaves, and branches to reference radiologic imaging. I embrace natural forms from North Carolina and Wisconsin to explore my family history.

​

The womb is a space of nourishment and protection throughout development and when it is not, it cycles through six stages. Body scan observes the shedding and growing of the uterus. River water and collections of my menstrual blood converge to forge a space where the internal and external world melds. A soft voice carries the viewer through the exhibition as a way to embody the innate pressures of procreation. Body scan is my way of confronting the primal questions of what it means to be a mother.  

​

​

AUDIO COMING SOON