Kata with charcoal. Photo by Adam Wallace

When this performance was exhibited at the LAB Gallery, I had just received news that a close family member had become an expectant mother. I was deeply moved by this performance, not only because of my excitement about a new family member, but also because of the elegance and beauty by which Kata presented the experience of her pregnancy. The performance provoked me to think about the nature of motherhood. Here are some of my thoughts.

When a woman imagines having a family, the notion is lucid and naive. No matter her previous thoughts, the reality of what that experience will truly be like is intangible and distant by its very nature.

Life moves forward, but somewhere in between, your perception of the world changes forever. You no longer can conceive of yourself first. Now you have been given the knowledge that you will be a mother in 40 weeks time, and the only thing in the world that you can think of is how you can give every ounce of your being to this new life growing inside you.

As humans, we are locked in our own minds. We perceive the world through the narrow lens experience and genetics have allotted us. But for this moment in time, these 40 weeks, you extend your vision beyond the ledge of your own corner of existence and for once honestly know what it feels like to be another. You create the other, and project onto and into the other; and they onto you.

Your perception of time shatters. It is no longer about your life, but the one to come.

Everything happens quickly, and yet the process has a framework that is slow and methodical: one step at a time, building, changing and morphing. A force so strong yet so fragile.

Circles completed and corners eroded.

Having no children of my own, I can only speculate. But I believe every woman wonders and waits patiently for the moment when they will give every once of their being to another.

I hope this video captures a fraction of that beauty and honesty.

-Abianne Prince