NOTES ON CARE: NEW PHOTOGRAPHS BY RACHEL COX
University of New Mexico Art Museum
August 23 - December 7, 2024
Notes on Care features photographs by artist Rachel Cox from the series Portrait of a Woman. This highly personal body of work chronicles Cox’s experience accessing fertility treatment to start a family. The title of the exhibition references the care the artist took when making decisions about how and when to create a family, the compassion she and her life partner Matt Iserman showed each other as they navigated the difficult process of in vitro fertilization (IVF), and the self-care Cox administered to her own body, emotions, and sense of self. Representation is important for Cox; these photographs depict a medical procedure that is rarely observed by the public or depicted in the media, yet over 300,000 people in the United States underwent IVF cycles in 2020 alone, according to the Center for Disease and Control. By making her own body and treatment visible, Cox’s photographs serve as sources of information and comfort.
