Mother Tongue, 2020/2021

Artspace and Phaidon, in partnership with Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, are pleased to announce a new limited edition by Camille Henrot, entitled Mother Tongue (2021). Created exclusively to benefit MOCA through a unique Artspace editions initiative, proceeds from the sale of Mother Tongue will support programming at the museum for the coming year.

Mother Tongue shares its title with Henrot’s current solo exhibition of new works at the Kestner Gesselschaft, in Hanover, Germany, and can be read in various ways - by design. Its rich visual beauty belies a deeper inquiry into the nature of humanity itself.

Referencing language as a means of appropriation, and the mouth as a site of both expression and consumption, Mother Tongue drives cracks into the iconic art historical trope of mother and child. Its intentional ambiguity sparks existential questions about instinctual and imposed attachment, affection, and alienation that, for many, have risen to the forefront of our awareness during a year of quarantine.

'To me, parenting is a very interesting source for material because of its messiness. It’s complex and ambivalent and unstable. There is tenderness but there is also anger. There is attraction but there is also repulsion. And if you pull on these strings, everything comes together: sexuality, love, death, and much more.' - Camille Henrot

ABOUT MOCA

Founded in 1979, MOCA is the defining museum of contemporary art. In a relatively short period of time, MOCA has achieved astonishing growth; a world-class permanent collection of more than 7,000 objects, international in scope and among the finest in the world; hallmark education programs that are widely-emulated; award-winning publications that present original scholarship; groundbreaking monographic, touring, and thematic exhibitions of international repute that survey the art of our time; and cutting-edge engagement with modes of new media production. MOCA is a not-for-profit institution in Los Angeles, California that relies on a variety of funding sources for its activities.

The practice of French artist Camille Henrot (b. 1978 in Paris, France) moves seamlessly between film, painting, drawing, sculpture and installation. The artist references self-help, online second-hand marketplaces, cultural anthropology, literature, psychoanalysis, and social media to question what it means to be at once a private individual and a global subject. Henrot is interested in confronting emotional and political issues, and looking at how ideology, globalization, belief and new media are interacting to create an environment of structural anxiety. The changing modes of information distribution and interpersonal connections, the relationships between individual experiences and macroscopic dynamics, as well as between images and language, are at the center of her works. Henrot lives and works in New York and Berlin. 

 A 2013 fellowship at the Smithsonian Institute resulted in her film Grosse Fatigue, for which she was awarded the Silver Lion at the 55th Venice Biennale. She is the recipient of the 2014 Nam June Paik Award and the 2015 Edvard Munch Award. In 2017, Henrot was given carte blanche at Palais de Tokyo in Paris, where she presented the major exhibition “Days Are Dogs." Henrot has had additional solo exhibitions at the Kestner Gesellschaft in Hannover, Germany; New Museum, New York; Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin; New Orleans Museum of Art; Fondazione Memmo, Rome; Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Japan and Art Sonje Center, Seoul. Upcoming solo exhibitions include the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia (2021) and Middelheim Museum in Antwerp, Belgium (2022). She has also participated in the Lyon, Berlin and Sydney Biennials and will present new works in the Liverpool Biennale (2021).

All our frames are manufactured in the USA, using eco-friendly and sustainably sourced engineered hardwood for durability and a uniform finish that is free of defects. Frames are available in Black or White Satin and Honey Pecan.

All prints are hinged to a conservation quality, acid-free and lignin-free Alpha Cellulose matboard, using an acid-free linen tape. The mat's surface paper is fade and bleed resistant and is attached to a conservation quality foam-core mounting board that will keep the work safe from deterioration over time. Artworks with a deckled or decorative edges will be floated on the matboard, with acrylic spacers to separate the art from the glazing. All mounting is fully reversible, without any potential damage to the art.

All of our frames come with picture quality .090 mm plexiglass, which blocks 66% of UV to prevent color fading from exposure to light, keeping your art protected for years to come. It is now considered the industry standard for artists, museums and galleries throughout the world.

For images up to 30" x 40"

• 1 1/4” wide, 3/4” deep, with a 2 1/2” wide mat.
• We generally leave 1/4” - 1/2” of paper showing around the image, to accommodate signatures and for visual appeal.

For sheet sizes larger than 30” x 40" please contact an Artspace advisor for a custom quote.

Our art editions ship in 7 to 10 business days from New York.

Our framed art editions ship in 11 to 14 business days from New York.

This work is eligible for return within 30 days of receipt of delivery.

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Contact an Artspace Advisor at advisor@artspace.com