Tiwani Contemporary is pleased to present Miranda Forrester's first solo exhibition at the gallery's new space in Cork Street, titled 'Arrival'.
The exhibition focuses on the domestic intimacy of the artists’ relationship and anticipation of her new-born baby and growth of Forrester’s family. The joy of parenthood is met and observed through the challenges the artist faced as being the non-birthing mother and many other questions she raised during her journey.
Forrester takes us through a visual and diaristic encounter with her annotations and gives insights of her experience of the path to parenthood while being in a queer partnership, lived experiences such as observing prejudice from society regarding queer relationships whilst building a family, as well as questions surrounding maternity, nature versus nurture, maternal instincts, and mother-child bonding at birth.
The artist explains her feelings of uncertainty and fear in the immediate post-partum period. In her own words, Forrester describes: ‘After our baby was born, for a short time I felt concerned whether she loved me as much as I loved her. I was very conscious of doing everything possible to bond with her, to make sure she knew I was her mother and that I loved her. In hindsight, these feelings feel ridiculous, I feel secure in my position. I think being the non-gestational mother comes with its own insecurities at the beginning, mostly I think, not from any true position of insignificance, but a lack of examples and visibility. The artist concludes these feelings in one of her works titled ‘Do You Love Me?, 2023’.
Gillian A. Dunne wrote ‘The concept of a mother in western society is equated with the biological processes of pregnancy, birth, and lactation, which are assumed to produce a special maternal bond. By privileging biological motherhood, other types of mothers including non-birth mothers in same sex relationships are often rendered invisible or secondary’. (Opting into motherhood: ‘Lesbians blurring the boundaries and transforming the meaning of motherhood').
Miranda Forrester often carries a soft, translucent sensation in her paintings, which is present in the new body of works for ‘Arrival’. The softness in the works almost correlate to the gentleness of a mother’s love, care and nurture, which Forrester crafts very carefully with warm palettes and moderate brushstrokes. At the same time, the energy and detailed crosshatching speaks of the laborious work Forrester puts in as a painter in her craft and has an underlying relatability and metaphorically encapsulates the vigorous work of a mother.
The artist encapsulates her celebration and profoundness of queer parenthood, moreover, motherhood, which is transforming the imbedded notions of the traditional perception of maternity.
About the Artist
Miranda Forrester lives and works in London. She holds a BA in Fine Art Painting from the University of Brighton.
Miranda Forrester explores the queer Black female gaze in painting vis a vis the history of men painting women naked. Her work addresses the invisibility of Black women in the western history of art. She investigates how painting can re-articulate the language and history of life drawing through a queer Black feminist and desiring lens. In doing so, she depicts what the male gaze may not be able to see.
Forrester says: “My work is a celebration of women’s bodies, the joy in occupying feminine identities and being in relation with one another.”
Recent solo and group exhibitions include: Like Paradise, Claridges Art Space, Curated by Ekow Eshun, London, UK (group – 2023); Hauntology: Ghostly Matters, Mariane Ibrahim Gallery, Chicago IL, USA, (group - 2023); Somatic Markings, Kasmin, New York NY, USA (group - 2022); Our Land Just Like a Dream, Macaal, Marrakech, Morocco (group - 2022); The Company She Keeps, Tiwani Contemporary, Lagos, Nigeria (group - 2022); Hard as Nails, Quench Gallery, Margate, UK (group - 2022); At Peace, Gillian Jason Gallery, London, UK (group - 2021); Small is Beautiful, Flowers Gallery, London, UK (group - 2021); Sixty- Six London, St George’s Place, London, UK (group - 2021); Reality Check, Guts Gallery, London, UK (group - 2021); Poetic Sustenance,Tiwani Contemporary, London, UK (group - 2021); Abode, Guts Gallery, London, UK (solo - 2020); Every Woman Biennial, Copeland Gallery, London, UK; Top 100 (The Auction Collective), London, UK; When s**t hits the fan again, Guts Gallery (online); Miranda Forrester & Emily Moore, Phoenix, Brighton, UK; Narrating Life, Studio Gallery, St Moritz, Switzerland; Pending, San Mei Gallery, London, UK; Antisocial Isolation, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK; Begin Again, Guts Gallery, London, UK; Online exhibition raising funds for The Free Black Uni; FBA Futures, Mall Galleries, London, UK; PLOP End of residency show, The Koppel Project, London, UK; Mercurial Matters: The Organic Feminine, Lock-in Gallery, Hove, London; How did we get here - Decolonising the Curriculum, Brighton University, Brighton, UK.
