Shweta Bist
Shweta Bist (b. 1980) was born in New Delhi, India, and currently lives and works in New York City. She earned her master’s degree in commerce from Delhi University and is an alumna of the School of Visual Arts Continuing Education in New York. Inspired by personal narratives, her photographic work is an exploration of maternal subjectivity. Her professional career began in the financial sector but assumed a creative direction after she became a mother to her two daughters.
Recent exhibitions include Naissance curated by Hettie Judah for Unit London’s Voices platform; Oh Mother at Hera Gallery, Wakefield, Rhode Island; Time/Space at Compère Collective, Brooklyn, NY; Maternal Interior curated by Lee Nowell-Wilson for A2AC, Ann Arbor, Michigan; Procreate Project Archive with Buildhollywood, London, UK (all 2023), and Constructions/Connections at South x Southeast Gallery, Molena, Georgia (2022).
She has presented her work at academic and art conferences on motherhood studies, is an artist mentor with Spilt Milk Gallery, Edinburgh, and is one of three founding members of Mother Creatrix Collective—a collective that supports and promotes the work of artist-mothers for whom mothering is a central aspect of their lives.
Artist Statement
My work is an exploration of the psychological experience of being a mother. I stage pictures to ascribe value to motherwork and oppose the consideration of home as an economically non-productive realm.
In the series The Fragility of Time, I investigate an unsettling anxiety that began to creep in when my younger daughter turned eight. Amidst the girls' growing independence, I struggled to recalibrate from being their world to becoming a part of it. Despite having more freedom, I experienced a sense of being adrift.
Coincidentally, during this time, a friend my age passed away from cancer, and a newfound awareness of mortality washed over me. In my forties, time became precious like never before. Having lived thus far within the framework of daughter, wife, and mother, I felt compelled to search for myself anew.
These pictures are glimpses of an ongoing period in my life, in which I am on a path of reflection and rediscovery while continuing to feel emotionally tethered to my daughters. I celebrate their blossoming femininity and commemorate my waning fertility, recognizing the temporality of life’s experiences—learning that each end is a new beginning.
I'm inspired by the ever-evolving dynamic between my daughters and me, and how stories of my past and the social milieu of our present influence us. Color conveys emotion, while symbols from nature, popular iconography, and art history represent ideas and attributes in the compositions.
