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Alexandra Carter

Alexandra Carter: The Mother Shell from Alexandra Carter

ARTIST STATEMENT
 
I paint the female body in states of transformation—pregnancy, birth, postpartum—to reveal the visceral realities of motherhood. I want to know how this experience consumes, ruptures, and remakes the self. I’m drawn to the monstrous feminine—the reproductive body as both feared and revered, vola

Growing up on a cranberry farm in Massachusetts, I was immersed in cycles of fertilization, growth, and harvest—rhythms that shape my work. Cranberries become metaphors for the reproductive body: swollen, fertile, bleeding. The harvest’s dependence on flooding echoes my fascination with contain

I often use my own body as a model, staging performances for the camera to explore personal and archetypal imagery. I draw from folklore and mythology, reimagining figures whose transformations mirror the physical and psychological shifts of motherhood. These mythic bodies—splitting, mutating—s

Through these paintings, I confront the contradictions of motherhood—its tenderness and violence, power and erasure, creation and consumption—an experience that is both universal and deeply personal.... more

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In Vitro by Alexandra Carter
In Vitro by Alexandra Carter
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  • Alexandra Carter
  • In Vitro, 2023
  • Ink and gold leaf on drafting film
  • 48 x 30.75 in
  • $3,200

This piece reflects on the processes of infertility treatment and pregnancy. In my experiences of going through IVF (In Vitro Fertilization, an assisted reproductive technology which has allowed me to surpass my own health problems and conceive two children), I was to treat my body as a holy vessel, warm and ready for conception, while at the same time feeling so trapped by the psychological barriers of my own body and its limitations. The form of the vessel was very resonant for this feeling, hence the vase-like shape the figure is trapped within. “In Vitro” refers to IVF but also translates to “in glass” or “in a test tube”, which emphasizes the fragility of both the mother and her entrapment. The Medusa head is referenced from ancient frieze images of the mythological figure, often placed above entryways to protect from evil entities. Here, she protects the fragile body/vessel and its contents.