Lisa SorginiBehind Glass

“This book is a multi-layered exploration of motherhood as it was shown during the months of the emerging COVID-19 pandemic, when unprecedented housekeeping measures were taken in Australia and around the world. It is both a creative commentary and an important cultural record.

Born out of the pandemic, the filming of the series began when the first stay-at-home orders went into effect in Australia. Making portraits of members of her immediate community, It’s a body of work motivated by the need to make visible the invisible role of parenthood during such isolation and evokes a spectrum of deep tenderness, boredom, quietude, love, frustration, fear and despair. These works present the light and darkness of motherhood during these extended periods of confinement; the use of soft lighting and tonal contrast gives visual life to this metaphor.

Each work is framed by a window in the house, a practice that seems poignant given the circumstances of mandatory isolation where no contact was allowed. It is a process that suspends each subject in a liminal space of transference and adaptation, a space that mothers endure but children are protected from. We see babies clinging to their mothers. Tiny hands tug at clothing and skin. Each image is a delicate assemblage of flesh, unposed, with a backdrop of quiet familiarity. There is tenderness, but also a pervasive claustrophobia and intensity.”