EXHIBITION PRESS RELEASE - Birth Undisturbed

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TO DOWNLOAD THIS PRESS RELEASE AS A WORD DOCUMENT / PDF, PLUS IMAGES OF THE FULL THE SERIES, AND A RANGE OF BEHIND-THE-SCENES/ ARTIST AT WORK IMAGES:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1aAoggUWb8HIKpw8I-AdAcgeLyfm2P-iE?usp=sharing

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PRESS RELEASE

“Birth Undisturbed” at S&P Gallery, Kensington London, 13th - 30th July 2022

Photographer shares elaborate staged scenes of women giving birth, from the Virgin Mary to the Queen

Photographer Natalie Lennard is exhibiting a five-year long series ‘Birth Undisturbed’, ten staged photographic pieces portraying childbirth through the ages: from a controversial birthing Virgin Mary, to Calamity Jane of the Wild West, to the Queen giving birth at Buckingham Palace in 1964.

The 36-year old artist from Brighton, Natalie Lennard, began the series in 2017 when she professed to be jaded by the stereotypical portrayal of birthing women as well as the curiosity she felt as a little girl about the mystery of the process.

Shot with models, prosthetic babies, and special effects, the series portrays historical and unusual births, mostly of a non-medical setting, of "scenes we lack pictures for.”

One picture shows a screaming blue-veiled Virgin Mary crowning Jesus in a stable, Joseph catching the head whilst animals gather round.

In a timely moment for the Platinum Jubilee this year, ‘Royal Blood’ depicts Queen Elizabeth II giving birth to Prince Edward in Buckingham Palace in 1964, to show how the Queen bucked several Royal birthing traditions in her time.

‘Born of Calamity’ depicts Calamity Jane as her lesser known brunette self, Martha Canary, standing birthing by barrels in a Wild West town. Another image ‘Aquadural’ imagines a naked African woman giving birth in the sea, whilst ‘Ejection Reflex’ shows a woman accidentally giving birth on a doorstep, her husband standing watching from next to his 1950s Chevrolet. Another shows birth in a squalid 1911 London bedroom, attended by the famous Dr Grantly Dick-Read who founded what we now know as the NCT (National Childbirth Trust).

‘Call to Prayer’ shows a modern Muslim birth in hospital with the father singing the Adhan prayer into the newborn’s ear, whilst ‘Power Pilgrimage’ shows a husband making out with a 1970s joint-smoking mother on back of a bus to picture the legacy of famous hippie midwife Ina May.

The final in the series, to be unveiled at the exhibition, will show a proudly naked Adam and Eve holding a newborn baby, complete with snake and surrounded by an Ark-full of taxidermy animals.

In an intention to “construct beautiful art from the 'disgusting miracle of nature,’” Natalie Lennard wanted to “bring physiological birth into narrative photography in a way she hadn’t seen”, inspired by the books of birth philosophers like Michel Odent, Ina May and Grantly Dick-Read.

She also reveals a strong personal motivation from her own experience as a mother. Natalie Lennard's first child was diagnosed in-utero as incompatible with life, and she fought to give birth to him peacefully at home. Over the next few years two healthy daughters followed, and Natalie felt inspired to show the world the importance of honouring a mother's wishes and instincts.

The series has been met with both love and controversy. The birthing Virgin Mary in her piece ‘The Creation of Man’ caused a storm in 2019 and 2020 when left-wing political writers tweeted the image to their followers in Italy and Spain. And ‘Royal Blood’ - intended to show the Queen’s bold choices for the homebirth of her last child Prince Edward in 1964 - caused an uproar in the British tabloid Daily Mail in 2018 and its video has since amassed 1.5 million views on YouTube.

The series has won two awards, and has been featured by Aesthetica, BJP Portrait of Humanity, Apollo and The Daily Beast amongst others.

This is the first time the series will be exhibited in full.

Birth Undisturbed is being exhibited as part of a wider show with the artist’s surrealistic fashion work, in the exhibition entitled ‘Natalie Lennard meets Miss Aniela’ at S&P Gallery, 58 Gloucester Road, South Kensington, London SW7 4QT.  

The sold-out ticketed private view took place on 13th July, with all proceeds going to birth charity ‘Childbirth Choices Matter’.

BACKGROUND

Natalie Lennard (b. 1986) is a fine-art and commercial photographer known for her fashion work as Miss Aniela, whose work has been exhibited in the Saatchi Gallery and Houses of Parliament, featured by the BBC, El Pais and NY Arts, and whose commercial clients include Nikon, HTC and Guo Pei. Twice named Saatchi Art's One to Watch, her evocative surrealistic fashion pieces have become globally prolific with luxury venues and is represented by Zeno Fine Art.

'Birth Undisturbed' is Lennard's first major project to focus on a biosocial topic, with videos, striving to combine the rawness of childbirth into the art world and Western consciousness in an unprecedented way. Depicting births of icons from the Virgin Mary to Calamity Jane and the Queen, partly inspired by the artist's own experience of motherhood and birth, the timeliness of the series is ever more appropriate in a global maternity crisis, highlighting key figureheads and writers from the realm of essential birth philosophy. To date, Birth Undisturbed has won multiple awards for its images and filmmaking, been featured by major newspapers globally and at key conferences in London, Europe and US.

The series in full, along with accompanying videos can be found at www.birthundisturbed.com

S&P Gallery https://spgallery.co.uk/

Gallery's show Information Page https://smithandpartner.co.uk/pages/natalie-lennard-meets-miss-aniela-2022-event

CONTACT For all press enquiries contact Millie Rodrigues millierodrigues@smithandpartner.co.uk

APPENDIX

PREVIOUS PRESS

Daily Beast, Daily Mail, The Sun, Metro, etc

https://www.birthundisturbed.com/press-links

SERIES VIDEOS

1 Salle Sauvage

https://youtu.be/sVdCY00vSdE

2 The Whitechapel Woman