Exhibitions

MOTHER'S MAYBE: A SERIES BY LAWRENCE MATTHEWS

Orange Mound Gallery / 2232 Lamar Ave. February 17, 2018 - March 10, 2018

Lawrence Matthews

Mother’s Maybe is a series of mixed media pieces created over a 2 year period exploring the ways in which black and white children are viewed through the lens of Pseudo Christian literature and photography from the antebellum south. Many of the ideas in this exhibition are based on the book The Peculiar Institution by Kenneth M. Stampp but focused in on motherhood and children. The work explores a time period where the very existence of black children seems to be some type of curse and religious impossibility. Lawrence uses the literature and imagery created to question the black existence to point out the hypocrisy and paradox that in many ways still exists in southern American culture. The title is also a play off the phrase Mother’s Baby, Fathers Maybe.