"In deciding to title this exhibition Mother, Barbara Weissberger opens a floodgate to potential allusions, references, and interpretations. The artist eschews any specific meaning as to what the exhibition title is in reference to, emphasizing that the title is “open to a multiplicity of responses.” This approach makes space for lots of fertile questioning, as we ponder who the mother is in this exhibition—or perhaps a better question might be, what mother is. In this exhibition, Weissberger has created images and objects which resemble bodily forms, yet the elements she uses are mostly disembodied: eyes that float, hands that remain estranged from arms, and intestinal-looking tubular shapes. It isn’t always clear precisely what kind of body or bodies are being created. Instead, there is a suggestive ambiguity to how “mother” functions here, as forms and shapes slip into one another, disturbing any clear reading of how they come together to form a whole. Viewing these lumpen, yet strangely active images and objects is an exercise in thinking through new questions about the creative impulse, and how Weissberger might test our assumptions about a word we think we understand."
-From the Gallery Guide
Kate Kelley, Assistant Curator, Silver Eye Center for Photography
Barbara Weissberger: Mother -- J Houston in The Heavy Collective