Art, Motherhood & Creative Health
The Holding Timepiece is an evolving artwork by Lisa Creagh that challenges conventional ways of measuring time. Inspired by Cosmatesque geometry and developed through glass sculpture, photography and 3D animation, it visualises maternal time as something that grows rather than passes. Created over nearly a decade, the Timepiece is now central to Holding Time’s development of an immersive virtual reality intervention designed to support mothers experiencing neonatal intensive care.
Mothers and families throughout Bradford shared their experience of breastfeeding as part of the Holding Time Project, launched with a live event during Baby Week Bradford on the 14th November 2024.
Stones is a five-minute film by Lisa Creagh reflecting on 25 years of living with endometriosis and severe menstrual pain. Created as the first of a two-part work, the film uses personal memory to explore chronic illness, treatment, menopause and resilience. It was made in collaboration with Creagh’s daughter and acknowledges the pioneering surgery that made motherhood possible.
Ablaze in Bradford explores the ideas, collaborations and creative development behind the Holding Time Project’s ambitious Bradford programme. Artist Lisa Creagh describes how an encounter with prehistoric maternal figurines in Malta inspired the monumental Holding Time Chair, a stone sculpture connecting public art with mothers’ recorded stories. Combining photographic portraits, creative writing, exhibitions and outdoor audio trails, the project brings breastfeeding and maternal wellbeing into Bradford’s parks, hospitals and communities.
The Holding Time Project brought photography, poetry and creative health workshops to Halton Family Hubs across Runcorn and Widnes. Featuring breastfeeding portraits across seven venues, writing workshops led by Rachel New and an audio tour at Norton Priory’s walled garden, the programme created opportunities for mothers to share their experiences of breastfeeding and motherhood. Developed with Halton Family Hubs and Improving Me, the project celebrates mothers’ voices and explores how creative practice can support maternal wellbeing.
Singing Mamas joined with the Holding Time Project Manchester mothers to create a warm afternoon of storytelling and chorus for the end of the writing workshops at Manchester Art Gallery.
I spoke about my project and the aims of partnering with the CTU for Coventry City of Culture. I showed the animated portraits, as well as a slideshow of stills. it was the first time I had presented the work in a meidcal setting and I found the atmosphere invigorating. It gave me new insight into how clinical trials lead the way to greater understanding of new approaches.
For this event I put together a slideshow, beginning with the story of my own struggles to breastfeed, then the rationale for the Holding Time still images, how these lead to the animation and installation. Finally I talked about the project website, the breastfeeding Hubs, the YouTube Channel interviews.
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.
