{"id":101864,"date":"2026-02-23T12:50:36","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T19:50:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=101864"},"modified":"2026-02-24T13:36:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:36:44","slug":"defending-the-self-emily-hawkins-mfa-exhibition-explores-motherhood-and-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/defending-the-self-emily-hawkins-mfa-exhibition-explores-motherhood-and-identity\/","title":{"rendered":"Defending the Self: Emily Hawkins\u2019 MFA Exhibition Explores Motherhood and Identity"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Emily Hawkins at BYU’s Weight Room Gallery, where she is installing her MFA exhibition I Will Defend Myself<\/em>. Image by Gina Cavallo.<\/p><\/div>\n

Coming back to Utah after the pandemic allowed Emily Hawkins<\/a>\u00a0to embark on a new path\u2014an MFA at Brigham Young University. Twenty years after receiving a BFA in photography from the University of Utah, the mother of four has found her voice and broadened her media to incorporate printmaking, sculpture, video, and sound. These are all highlighted in her short-run MFA thesis exhibition at BYU\u2019s Weight Room Gallery.<\/h4>\n

The exhibition features several multi-media works. \u201cI Will Defend My Self,\u201d 2026, is an installation of a framed print of her grandmother ironing, accompanied by a poem by Polish poet Anna \u015awir. Hawkins reached out to 150 mothers\u2014some she knew, some BYU faculty and others she didn\u2019t know\u2014to ask for their recorded response to the poem. These recordings serve as the sound element in the work, accessible to visitors through a 1980s wall phone complete with a Rest-a-Phone shoulder support. Hawkins says the looped responses are \u201cthe catalyst for my show, the idea of defending the self\u2014the self of mother, maintaining that identity while being so consumed by raising children.\u201d<\/h4>\n
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Emily Hawkins, “Load Bearing,” (rendering) 2026, OSB, video, <\/span>159 x 18 x 6.5 in.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Motherhood is the foundation of all her work ,and the other pieces in the show reflect her own experience as a mother. \u201cLoad Bearing,\u201d 2026, displays videos of her four children sleeping, housed in a large OSB wall form. Other works include blueprint racks holding prints she\u2019s created about her plans that didn\u2019t happen after she became a mother; three sugar-melt floor sculptures holding tightly to electric mixer paddles; and a poster she\u2019s made featuring Greco-Roman sculptures of women, broken and missing parts of their bodies. \u201cThe idea of erasure, and invisibility or loss of identity felt conceptually linked to what I\u2019m interested in.\u201d<\/h4>\n

In one of the two small side galleries, Hawkins presents another installation titled \u201cLeftovers,\u201d this time using our old friend Tupperware. \u201cIt\u2019s going to function like a kitchen cupboard that has everything shoved in it,\u201d she says, \u201cand it\u2019s going to be spilling out with Tupperware. It\u2019s the idea of empty containers as a base material, like a storage material that embodies the maternal body in a way. [It reflects] the idea of trying to preserve something, the idea of excess and chaos, and you can\u2019t do it all.\u201d<\/h4>\n

Another video work, \u201cThe Hidden Mother,\u201d references the strange-to-us Victorian practice of photographing children held by their mothers who end up hidden or erased from the image. Hawkins installation is inspired by video artist Paul Pfeiffer, though her very feminine imagery contrasts with his masculine sports imagery. Her video is run through a 1990s Sony projector, retrofitted by a BYU mechanical engineering student and some welders, to mimic Pfeiffer\u2019s armature for his displays. For the closing reception of her MFA thesis exhibition, she has enlisted the artistic director of contemporary dance at BYU. \u201cI gave her carte blanche to come up with a response and movement to how she might respond to these ideas [of the Victorian motherless imagery].\u201d<\/h4>\n
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Emily Hawkins, “I Will Defend My Self,” 2026 Print, frame, telephone, audio<\/p><\/div>\n

Her work in the exhibition reflects the intersection of her life experiences as a mother with experimental exploration of different media new to her. After completing her undergraduate work, Hawkins felt disconnected from both photography and the art world, describing the period as \u201ca real loss of identity.\u201d A decade later, encouraged by an artist friend after the birth of her fourth child, she returned to making art, realizing it was \u201ca way I could express myself that I really need.\u201d Photography became an accessible entry point, though she struggled with what felt like \u201ca saturated world of images\u201d that made meaning difficult to find. Joining a cooperative gallery in Spokane \u2014 where annual exhibitions provided both deadlines and community \u2014 became \u201ca game changer,\u201d helping her overcome isolation and reconnect with artistic practice. After moving back to Utah, she shifted into printmaking, a transition that ultimately led her to pursue an MFA. Having worked across many mediums, she now identifies primarily as a conceptual artist.<\/h4>\n

Emily\u2019s work provides insights into motherhood, its tensions and joys, as well as inspiration for the perseverance of creativity and its drive within us to create and to fight for our often-hidden selves within the complexities of everyday life.<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

Emily Hawkins: I Will Defend Myself<\/em>, Weight Room Gallery, BYU (1125 N University Avenue), February 26 \u2013 March 5, 2026. Closing Reception & Performance: March 5, 7\u20139 pm Live performances at 7:00 and 7:30 pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coming back to Utah after the pandemic allowed Emily Hawkins\u00a0to embark on a new path\u2014an MFA at Brigham Young University. Twenty years after receiving a BFA in photography from the University of Utah, the mother of four has found her voice and broadened her media to incorporate printmaking, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1736,"featured_media":101875,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,14],"tags":[4145],"class_list":["post-101864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exhibition_reviews","category-visual_arts","tag-emily-hawkins"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IMG_0785-2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-24 19:03:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1736"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101864"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101873,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101864\/revisions\/101873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}