Mother's #19 Possibly 2001 - 2014

Ishiuchi Miyako's photograph, "Mother's #19" is a small black and white photograph that presents the everyday as a site of incredible emotional density. Her approach to photography feels like a kind of excavation, sifting through the remnants of a life to uncover something profound. The photograph is closely cropped on a hairbrush, its plastic bristles splayed like little fingers, and littered with strands of dark hair. It sits in a glass, half-obscured, as if caught mid-use. The stark monochrome adds to the sense of loss and memory. Look at how the light catches the plastic of the brush, almost sparkling, yet the overall mood is somber. There's a tension between the banality of the object and the intimacy it suggests. The stray hairs, caught in the bristles, speak of a human presence, of a life lived, a body aging. It reminds me of the work of Felix Gonzalez-Torres, who used simple objects like piles of candy or stacks of paper to evoke absence and memory. Like his work, "Mother's #19" shows how art can be a powerful means of engaging with grief, memory, and the enduring power of love.