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Artist parents: speak up
"There is no more sombre enemy of good art than the pram in the hall" Cyril Connolly, Enemies of Promise, 1938
This provocative quotation spurred artist Martina Mullaney to set up a public discussion, 'Enemies of Good Art', about the dual roles of mother and creative practitioner. The debate took place within Goshka Macuga's installation Nature of the Beast at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in July. The central UN-style round table, with Guernica tapestry backdrop, proved an atmospheric location for over twenty women to share their emotional, practical and philosophical experiences of being a parent and an artist. Mullaney, whose baby was seven months old at the time of the meeting, felt that it was important for those who attended, and the discussion itself, to be held in an art space open to the public. It located the artists and debate within an art environment, but also encouraged many women who now felt alienated from, or less confident in, such an arena to re-enter it. Mullaney remarks: "The most inspiring element of the discussion was hearing a mother of four children, all under the age of two, talk about engaging with her practice again. She had thought that because she was unable to give 100 per cent to her practice she should not think about making work until her children were...
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