Exhibitions

On display in the gallery is a selection from Diamond’s ongoing series: I Promise to be a Good Mother. In this body of work Diamond explores the relationship between mother and child, tackling its various intricacies and complexities. Embracing self-portraiture, Diamond plays the role of the mother.Loosely based on the artist’s own relationship with her mother, Diamond consolidates her childhood with visions of what she believes it means to be a mother.

She challenges the expectations of the relationship, both by isolating specific moments and by suggesting what the title in fact promises. With closer observation, the viewer realizes that the child
in the series is an incredibly lifelike plastic doll. Some images prove more unnerving than others: here Diamond captures the elusive instances when the bond between mother and child is tested. Not only does this provide a fiendish element of humor to the series, but also it explains that there exists a constant duality in Diamond’s work. Diamond demands closer attention from the viewer: is the artist addressing the fragility of being a mother? Is she mocking the entire experience by using a doll? What artifices of motherhood is the artist intent on revealing?

// text by Karline Moeller (co-curator Berlin/NY)