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.
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.
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.
