THE_HANDS_OF_MY_MOTHERS

The series The Hands of my Mothers is intended to commemorate mothers and to call up and to read their memories. The word mother represents all mothers, for the bodily mothers, grandmothers and ancestors, as well as for the mother figures who enrich our lives - and for the artistic mother. Artists often refer to their works as their children. They give birth. They are mothers. But a mother also supervises and punishes. She preserves and orders. "Through the series of works The Hands of my Mothers. I would also like to emphasize caring: A deep feeling and desire expressed in actions.“

The object – used vintage gloves in a box made of acrylic glass – is in the room, with all its traces. Visible are these traces of the worn gloves, in which on the one hand the wearers have inscribed themselves and on the other hand through the embroidery of the various role models of women. Valerie Habsburg has chosen the technique of embroidery to reproduce the casual feminine method of repairing and inscribing. In the photographic images, the embroidered gloves stage themselves as seemingly light objects that open up a space for the viewer. The genuine objects, on the other hand, lie mystically by themselves in a glass box. As an everyday object, the gloves become an art object and refer to their wearers.

The functions of gloves are manifold: covering bare skin, protection from cold, diseases or injuries, but also adornment. The wearers are not present (anymore) and yet they have left us something. The artistic legacies of our mothers often form a foundation for our own artistic actions. Acting through the hands of our mothers and grandmothers has shaped us in our daily lives. Today, it are our own hands that create something new.