Manchester

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'Birth Rites' at Manchester Museum

Anyone with a squeamish disposition should look away now: 'Birth Rites', an exhibition at Manchester Museum, gets up-close and personal to the messy, joyous and downright scary experience of childbirth

The idea for Manchester Museum's new exhibition, 'Birth Rites',  was sparked by curator Helen Knowles’s own labours: she underwent an emergency caesarean and, with her second child, a natural homebirth. Inspired both by her experience and the fierce social and political debate that surrounds pregnancy and childbirth, Knowles commissioned five artists to work with five childbirth practitioners.

These health professionals range from an independent midwife to a Director of Foetal Medicine, and the resulting artworks on display at Manchester Museum give some indication of the very different experiences women have when giving birth to their children. Chinese artist Ping Qiu, for example, worked with the pioneering childbirth activist, Ina May; her resulting mammary-like ceramic sculptures dominate the gallery space, while, elsewhere, film, video, painting and photography shed new light on what often remains a secretive female rite of passage.

The overall theme of the exhibition is one of liberation. By facing up to the taboos that still surround childbirth, both artists and practitioners aim to empower mothers-to-be. So, although there is the obligatory, bloody photograph of a woman giving birth, it’s a strangely beautiful image that demystifies the act and, in doing so, makes it appear (slightly) less frightening.  
Birth Rites Manchester Museum, Oxford Road, M13 9PL (275 2634/www.museum.manchester.ac.uk). Until  November 30, 11am-4pm Mon, Sun; 10am-5pm Tue-Sat; free.

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