Beneath the Wallpaper, 2023

watercolour on frosted mylar mounted on stretched canvas

12” x 12”

Michaela Lucio explores the residue of histories contained in family photographs and infuses intergenerational relationships with memory and imagination. Beneath the Wallpaper is an allegory of the barriers that women face when seeking medical attention and the struggles of post-natal depression. The title is a reference to Charlotte Perkin Gilman's short story The Yellow Wallpaper, where a woman who is a new mother is confined by her doctor husband to a room with little company, activity or stimulation to treat her hysteria. She is slowly driven mad by her confinement. 

While women in different countries enjoy much more autonomy than in the Victorian era, anti-abortion laws pose a dire threat to women's freedom and access to vital health care. Women are forced into motherhood with bodies that have been turned alien through pregnancy and face isolation, particularly if they don't have a support system. 

Exhibition History

2024 - Square Foot 2024. John Mann Gallery. Margie Galita, Gallery Manager & Curator. (St. Catharine’s)