ARTISTS STATEMENT
I see my works as visual petitions, questioning social norms and exploring the imperfect image of myself as a mother, an immigrant from the conflicted Middle East, and a storyteller of postnatal depression, child loss, sacrifice, and power dynamics within the mother-son relationship. Since giving birth nearly 15 years ago, my practice has involved constructing human-sized structures to encapsulate physical and psychological moments, often performed with my son in front of the camera. Through this, I aim to reveal our deeply personal and evolving relationship while creating new iconographies that challenge the traditional ‘Madonna and Child’ theme, expanding the narrow historical and religious depictions of motherhood. In How Much Do You (2018), we stand naked within a wooden structure, austere and unwelcoming, like gatekeepers or Oracles delivering bad omens, gazing directly at the viewers. In F*ck You (2024), we reuse a wooden structure from our 2016 work Middle Ages, which depicted my son holding me in tenderness. This time, the family portrait captures my teenage son’s resistance to being photographed, unless his middle finger is pointed at me, the camera, the audience, and the world. I also use video to expand narratives. In Madonna and Child Unplugged (2020), a soundless video, we form a band, playing music together. It humorously blurs the traditional hierarchical dynamic between mother and child, oscillating between moments of joy and discomfort. The results are often both funny and painful, inviting viewers to reconsider the complexities of motherhood beyond conventional ideals.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Leni Dothan is an artist, architect and researcher (PhD 2019, Slade School of Fine Art UCL) based in London. Dothan’s artwork coexists with her ongoing academic research about the motherhood model of Christian iconic Virgin Mary and Christ and its influence on contemporary culture and socio-political and economical structures in the Western world. As part of Leni’s work dealing with care, she also developed projects engaging with the eco-feminist subject of air pollution in which she worked collaboratively with scientists in UCL to push the boundaries of photography, by using pollution-reactive material developed especially for her work. Dothan present her works in museums around the world, such as Jewish Museum, London; MAMbo Museum, Bologna, as well as galleries and site specific projects including Hayward Gallery touring exhibition; Richard Saltoun Gallery, London; Centre Régional Art Contemporain Occitanie à Sète, France; Hå Gamle Prestegard, Norway, and b-side Multimedia Art Biennial (Portland, UK).
© Leni Dothan