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Motherhood is central to the photographic work of Oxiea Villamonte (1995). In 2020 she graduated from art academy with the project Next of Kin, which she later turned into a publication. Further elaborating on this project for Prospects, the artist created two cross-shaped sculptures under the same title, Next of Kin (2025). Since next of kin refers to one’s closest living relative, the work pays tribute to the artist’s matriarchal upbringing. Villamonte was raised by a single mother, Reina, who served as her role model from a young age. The artist feels a close kinship with her on many levels: the two women are both photographers, and have a similar appearance and character.
For the work at Prospects, Villamonte delved into her mother’s visual archives and combined photographs of herself in her early twenties with portraits of her mother at that same age. Present and past flow into each other, and because of the strong resemblance, at first it is unclear that these are two different people. The project is therefore also an exploration of her own identity. What have we inherited from our parents, and to what extend can we be our own person? Villamonte: ‘Whenever I look in the mirror, I see my mother staring back at me. And although I embrace our similarities, I am also afraid of repeating similar choices.’
Villamonte’s cross-shaped sculptures turn her mother into an icon, referencing the religious visual language of mother and child. Just like mother and child, the two crosses closely resemble each other, and yet they are also different.
Text: Esmee Postma
Translated from Dutch by Marie Louise Schoondergang (The Art of Translation)