LINDLEY WARREN MICKUNAS: MATERNAL SHEET
LINDLEY WARREN MICKUNAS: MATERNAL SHEET
CREDITS
In ‘Maternal Sheet’, Lindley Warren Mickunas (b.1988, the USA) is reflecting on the complexity of parent-child relationships and the conceptual weight of carrying the past.
Her photographs function as re-enactments based on Warren Mickunas’ familial history performed by non-relatives – “allowing the fabricated and the real to blend together, much like they do in memory.” As she states herself: “These images explore heritage, violence and co-dependency, especially pertaining to the maternal bond. My personal narrative acts as a springboard to visually investigate universal themes surrounding the lingering effects of trauma and grapple with the profound longing for familial closeness and the necessity for separation.”
Lingering somewhere between past, dream and memory, her black and white imagery juxtaposes intimacy with cold detachment. Highlighted with a harsh flashlight, the series includes images of domestic spaces, mother-daughter interactions and children wandering in their own thoughts, allowing for an alternative visual reference of motherhood and family history – drawn from Warren Mickunas’ own experiences as a daughter.
Warren Mickunas is a Chicago-based photographer, editor and curator. Currently, she is also an MFA candidate in photography at Columbia College Chicago and a curatorial assistant at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago. This year, her ongoing project ‘Maternal Sheet’ has been awarded as Aperture Foundation’s 2020 Portfolio Prize Runner-Up.
