Birth and breastfeeding are an invitation to enter into another domain of time. Or more accurately, to be intime, to be grounded in the cycle of life.
Breastfeeding in Public: This Discomfort Matters
Breastfeeding is not the norm in the UK, and breastfeeding in public can be especially daunting to a new mother. The anxiety that many women face shows that. In the last Infant Feeding Survey, 45% of mothers said they felt uncomfortable feeding in front of others, and most acutely so in public spaces*.
Connecting Through Stories
by Lucila Newell, October 30th 2017 Connecting with others, sharing stories, finding a role model is crucial to breastfeeding. Because breastfeeding is…
Building Belonging
The arguments for breastfeeding in terms of health are already won, but breastfeeding statistics remain impossibly low in the UK. How can this be? Because the barriers to breastfeeding are cultural, not medical but the majority of information about breastfeeding comes from the medical community. This viewpoint says that women should breastfeed, without acknowledging the personal and emotional struggles involved in doing so.
Art, Motherhood and the Cultural Invisibility of Breastfeeding
Artist Lisa Creagh joins Christiane Monarchi, founder and editor of Photomonitor, for an in-depth conversation about the origins and development of the Holding Time Project. Exploring photography, feminism, maternal time and the cultural invisibility of breastfeeding, the discussion reveals how personal experiences of motherhood inspired an ambitious collaborative artwork. From animated portraits and glass timepieces to mothers’ recorded stories, the conversation examines how art can challenge social conventions and create new ways of representing maternal experience.
Fabrica Gallery Installation
Fabrica Gallery hosted Holding Time’s first multi-screen installation—mothers’ voices, animation, and music exploring breastfeeding, culture and time.
ONCA Gallery, Brighton, UK 2018
In 2018, Holding Time partnered with ONCA Gallery in Brighton to test the idea of a Breastfeeding Hub—a welcoming space for mothers’ voices, interviews, and conversations about the cultural and structural barriers to breastfeeding.