Bubly Barna - Fragmented Yet Tangled

Artist's Statement

My work's exploration of motherhood begins with me as the subject matter, narrating the lived experiences of giving birth, pregnancy memories, postpartum emotions, building a new character, and identity shifting. After my child's birth, I began to feel how the two bodies remain connected, even when they are not tied through the umbilical cord anymore. My work imagines the invisible body connectivity. This led me to make forms of invisible bodily connectivity through the fragile, stuffed, deformed, and silhouette-cut figures to symbolize it.

It has been seven years since I began carrying the identity of a mother. As I move forward, my awareness and sensitivity have deepened. I have come to understand how the meaning of motherhood shifts across social, political, and religious contexts, and how childcare labor remains deeply gendered. Growing up in a patriarchal society, and now as a mother myself, I have witnessed how motherhood and the domestic sphere are often undervalued.

Now, my works are more into navigating the issues around domesticity, invisibility, social and religious politics on motherhood, and also care and transformation of identity that motherhood entails. In this context, stitching style is a profound documentation of my journey through the physical and mental transformations of motherhood. The fragile, stuffed, deformed, and silhouette-cut figures in my works symbolize my memories of giving birth to my child.

As an artist, I seek to reflect the complex journey of motherhood, shaped by the intersecting forces of a chauvinist society, religious myths, and deeply ingrained social and gender expectations. Becoming a mother was a significant shift for me, one that brought with it a deeper understanding of the unspoken struggles, underlying emotional and hormonal upheavals, and the struggle to fit into a new identity.

Hand stitching has become a central vocabulary in my practice. I use it to reflect how domestic labor is repetitive, undervalued, unpaid, and labor-intensive, particularly forms such as knitting and weaving, cooking, which have historically been associated with women.

My work also responds to the shifting idealizations of motherhood. While it began with narrating my own experiences, it has gradually expanded toward a more collective form of storytelling.

Bubly Barna
Artist