Heather Passmore: Roman Charity

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Heather Passmore, "Last Nurse," 2019

silk screen on linen, 5' x 5'

Heather Passmore: Roman Charity

Opening Reception: Thursday, January 16th from 6-8pm.

“Milk Portraits” series integrates silkscreen and milk paint to depict mothers who have covered their faces instead of their breasts while breastfeeding. The series includes three large self (effaced) portraits on fabric depicting the last time Passmore nursed her daughter. The images are based on photographs that circulated on social media in protest to admonishment that mothers should cover up while nursing in public. Nursing covers remain the only instance in which western women veil themselves. Discomfort with breastfeeding may arise from the fraught nature of human milk as a substance that is both nourishing and abject, or an inability to view breasts outside the scope of sexual gratification.