DURHAM – “How Does It Feel” is a multidisciplinary art exhibition that opened last month. 

The show seeks to expand and explore our concept of “motherhood” as caregiving, but also the ways caregiving changes one emotionally, mentally and, of course, physically. The artists featured do not all define themselves as cisgender women. 

The exhibition is on view at the Yarrow House at the People’s Solidarity Hub in Durham’s Lakewood neighborhood. It’s next open hours are on July 7. A closing reception is July 17 at 6 p.m.

“How Does It Feel” was curated by Cassie Rowe and Charla Rios who are both mothers and members of Mothers 4 Ceasefire, a grassroots organization that hosts demonstrations and exhibitions in the name of ending the genocide in Palestine. In a special zine made to accompany the show, the two state: 

“We believe that mothering, as defined by Alexis Pauling Gumbs as a ‘practice that has existed as long as people of different ages with different superpowers invested in each other’s existence,’ can support the future of our species.”

Viewers are invited to “feel how they mother themselves to heal,” and given a call to action. “You are needed for all of your talents and gifts to shape and shift the current state of the world.” 

Viewers can interact with works like Abigail Ruth’s “Care To Hold,” which asks viewers “what they are willing to carry and for how long?” Viewers must take from a large pile of bricks and place them individually, creating a collective makeshift castle. Since opening night, the structure has grown, perhaps suggesting how every individual creates and imprints on every child as they grow. 

Under Natzieli Alvarez’s “Devocion à Madre,” sits a woven paper notebook on which the words “Prayers to Divine Mothering” is scrawled in both English and Spanish. Accompanying the notebook are markers and pens, including one perfectly sized for small hands. The work itself is a small altar topped with several melted multicolored candles interspersed with dried rose petals.

Charla Rios’ “UnforeSEEN Expectations // But who will hold me?” segments of red glass beads creep from the wrist opening of a red latex kitchen glove toward the fingers, turning into black beads. While the artist’s description explains how Rios realized she always thought of her mother’s life as defined by her own existence as her child, it suddenly changed once she embarked on her own caregiving journey.

The black beads could represent the feelings of resentment from the inconvenience of obligatory caregiving, especially when confronted with the reality that motherhood is a binding contract. 

Beyond the photos and canvases on the walls, the show gathers and embodies some of the best parts of Durham: a chosen sanctuary for radical care outside of gender expectations but according to one’s own moral compass.

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