Veiled Presence: The Hidden Mothers and Sara VanDerBeek

This exhibition explores the "hidden mother" in 19th-century portraits of children, where long exposure times required mothers or caretakers to keep children still, often concealed behind props or beneath textiles to an unsettling degree. Contemporary artist Sara VanDerBeek responds to these examples of hidden labor by highlighting photography’s power as a form of mediation between past and present, original and reproduction. Addressing themes of motherhood, labor, and grief, VanDerBeek reflects upon the collective memory of women beneath the veil, both then and now.