Rebekah Miller
Home: Dawson City, Yukon
Title: Hidden Mother
Media: Graphite on rag paper
Dimensions: 76 x 55 cm
Website: rebekahmiller.ca
Instagram: @rebekahmillerstudio
ARTIST STATEMENT
Hidden Mother explores the tension between presence and absence within the body. Concealed behind the veil, the absent figure creates a sense of both intimacy and distance and suggests layers of memory, identity and emotional experience. The subject, naked and holding a bird in flight conflates maternal care with “mother nature,” while also suggesting an inner, more psychological dimension to her identity.
The title refers to the historical tradition of the “hidden mother” photograph, in which mothers were concealed while physically supporting their children. Here, that hidden presence becomes the subject itself. The unseen figure is not absent, but quietly holding the image together.
Using realism to create a detailed rendering, I am interested in the contradiction between perception and reality. Drawing attention to the physical qualities of the fabric and body, while simultaneously obscuring what appears to be a vacant face, resists a complete reading of the portrait. Hidden Mother considers portraiture not simply as a visible record of appearance, but as a space where presence, absence, memory and identity can coexist.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Rebekah Miller is a Northern Canadian artist whose drawings, sculptures and installations explore home, nature, memory and the body. “Hidden Mother” furthers examines these concepts and expands upon them to include ideas relating to motherhood. Through the carefully rendered drawing “Hidden Mother”, I show myself as mother but also reveal, through her concealment, all mothers who remain obscured or unseen. Rebekah completed her BFA at Alberta College of Art and Design in 2008 and her MFA at the San Francisco Art Institute in 2011. She lives and maintains her art practice in Dawson City, YT.