Liz McCarthy: THE EXPECTANCIES
1224 W Loyola Ave, Chicago IL
February 8 to March 1, 2025

Opening Saturday, February 8 from 5-8 PM
Open Hours Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays 4-7 PM

The forms in this exhibition are “baby vessel instruments” made out of clay. The surfaces are covered in a network of “stuff” impulsively stuck on with various fast drying glues and putties. I began these while wondering about the fetus life growing inside of me. The instruments served as a site for mulling the responsibility of bringing a new human body into the world; articulated through the material and memories of my human childhood.

Roe vs. Wade was overturned by the supreme court when I was 10 weeks pregnant. As a result, I was very aware of myself, not just as a pregnant person but as a vessel, growing an autonomous creature inside of me. Even before birth, the thing was controlled by socialized expectations, laws; and growing under the influence of my physical habits and maintenance. The awareness that the thing inside of me was also a vessel, both for my personal expectations, as well as the collective norms it would be born into.

I looked at old pictures of myself as a baby and found clothes and artifacts from my infancy. This baby inside of me was inspiring a new nostalgia. After my daughter was born, I continued making these babies, as my experience having one shifted the significance of the vessels.

In infancy she was just a small helpless breathing creature, with so little of her own content.

As my husband and I stared at her we could feel the oxytocin rushing through our animal brains, eliciting profound joy. She is life created from our shared genetics; affirming our own material existence on this planet. The small creature had so much potential to be filled with our expectations and desires.

As she has morphed into a force in the world, a toddler, I wonder what is hers—hidden in the labyrinth of her cerebral architecture—and what is imitation, as she performs everything she sees and hears, echoing in the chamber of her mind.

These baby instruments are not her or me. They are exercises in material collection and dissection; material ceremonies birthed out of the anxiety, love, mourning, joy, frustration, and fear that haunts new motherhood.

–– Liz McCarthy

Liz McCarthy (She/they) is a Chicago-based artist that combines ceramics with other objects and performances. Her work explores ways in which her body is an ever-changing material intertwined with human and nonhuman environments. Her sculptures often take the form of whistles that have the potential for instrumental performances. These objects harken potential modes for human collectivity, vulnerability, and play. For more information, visit liz-mccarthy.com.

Roman Susan Art Foundation celebrates and shares the work of artists in the Great Lakes region. We create cultural engagements that provide resources and paid opportunities for artists. We are Chicago-based. We are artist-led. We are experimental and learning. For more info, please visit romansusan.org.

For further info: romansusan.org/THE-EXPECTANCIES or contact art@romansusan.org

Image provided courtesy of Liz McCarthy

This program is partially supported by grants from the Illinois Arts Council Agency through awards from the National Endowment for the Arts. This project is partially supported by a CityArts Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events.

Roman Susan Art Foundation NFP is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt public charity supported in part by grants from the Illinois Arts Council Agency; CityArts grants and a Chicago Arts Recovery Program grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events; Hyde Park Art Center’s Artists Run Chicago Fund in partnership with Art Design Chicago; Gen Ops Plus grants from The Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation; The Reva and David Logan Foundation; as well as generous in-kind support from Archie’s Cafe; Cargo Collective; Chicago Park District; the Graham Foundation Bookshop; Lawyers for the Creative Arts; Sewing Classes at Tchad; and past support from AD3 Innovation Bootcamp; An Sylvia Exhibitions; Crossroads Fund; The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation; Foundation Source; Lucky Pierre; The MacArthur Funds for Culture, Equity, and the Arts; and Story Luck. To support this ongoing work, please visit romansusan.org/support.

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