Surface Work continues at Victoria Miro Mayfair until 16 June
Installation view, Victoria Miro Mayfair. Left to right: Alma Thomas, Untitled, 1961; Adriana Varejão, Azulejão (Moon), 2018; Howardena Pindell, Untitled, 1971
Surface Work exhibition guide
Your online guide to the 54 artists in our international, cross-generational exhibition of abstract painting by women
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What’s Happening
The latest from Victoria Miro artists around the world
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Exhibition
Posted
7 May 2018
Yayoi Kusama: Life is the Heart of a Rainbow, now open at Museum MACAN, Jakarta
The first large-scale exhibition (12 May – 9 September 2018) of Yayoi Kusama’s work in Indonesia includes more than 130 works that span almost 70 years. Museum MACAN, Jakarta -
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Exhibition
Posted
18 May 2018
Chantal Joffe: Personal Feeling is the Main Thing at The Lowry
An exhibition (19 May – 2 September 2018) of works from across Joffe's career addressing themes of portraiture, motherhood, passing time and art's relationship to history. The Lowry, Salford -
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Exhibition
Posted
4 May 2018
Opening soon – Life in Motion: Egon Schiele / Francesca Woodman at Tate Liverpool
The exhibition (24 May – 23 September 2018) pairs work by the artists to explore motion in drawing and photography. Tate Liverpool -
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News
Posted
18 May 2018
Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Charles Gaines in conversation at The Broad Stage
Presented by Sotheby's Institute of Art and The Broad Stage, and moderated by Anne Ellegood, the event takes place at 7.30pm, Mon May 21 2018. The Broad Stage, Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center -
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Gallery Event
Posted
15 May 2018
Surface Work Tours
Led by curators and featured artists, these informal tours are free to attend and will last around 30 minutes. No booking necessary. -
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Exhibition
Posted
3 May 2018
Tal R: this is not Detroit, now open at MOCA Detroit
The intricate, multipart installation (11 May – 29 July 2018) manifests the artist’s fantasy of Detroit. Seven large-scale paintings, rendered in a rich and moody palate of blues, depict the artist’s vision of specific Detroit neighborhoods he has never visited. MOCA, Detroit -
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Exhibition
Posted
26 April 2018
Works by Maria Nepomuceno feature in the opening displays of the Norval Foundation, Cape Town
The Norval Foundation (from 28 April 2018) is a new centre for the research and exhibition of 20th and 21st-century visual art from South Africa and beyond. Norval Foundation, Cape Town -
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Exhibition
Posted
25 April 2018
Varda Caivano in The Divine Joke, curated by Barry Schwabsky
An exhibition at Anita Rogers Gallery, New York (25 April – 2 June 2018) curated by the critic and poet Barry Schwabsky. Anita Rogers Gallery, New York -
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News story
Posted
20 April 2018
The Financial Times announces Victoria Miro’s representation of the Ilse D’Hollander Estate
D’Hollander’s soft, small-scale but highly charged works often draw on the Flemish countryside and are increasingly finding their audience with recent institutional shows in Europe. Melanie Gerlis, Financial Times -
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Review
Posted
15 April 2018
Laura Cumming reviews Surface Work in The Observer
★★★★★ 'To see all these works in London, for the first time, is both momentous and poignant.' Laura Cumming, The Observer -
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News story
Posted
10 May 2018
Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Stan Douglas, Isaac Julien, Wangechi Mutu and Chris Ofili donate works to Creating Space: Artists for the Studio Museum in Harlem
Sotheby's New York hosts the viewing (4 – 16 May 2018) and auction (16, 17 May 2018) of works to benefit the Studio Museum's new building. Sotheby's New York -
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Event
Posted
11 April 2018
A Wayne McGregor triple bill, featuring Kairos with set design by Idris Khan, at Nationaltheater, Munich
Performances by Munich's Bayerisches Staatsballett include Kairos, McGregor's reimagination of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, with set design by Idris Khan and score by Max Richter. Nationaltheater, Munich -
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Feature
Posted
13 May 2018
‘Painting is a high-wire act’: Olivia Laing on sitting for Chantal Joffe
'I wanted to see what would happen if I wrote about her while she was painting me, if we could survey each other at the same time in an act of simultaneous witnessing.' Olivia Laing, The Observer -
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Exhibition
Posted
13 April 2018
Njideka Akunyili Crosby’s Hayward Gallery Billboard is unveiled
Dwell: Aso Ebi, 2017, is on view until February 2019. The work is installed on the façade of the Queen Elizabeth Hall, opposite the Hayward Gallery. Southbank Centre, London -
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News story
Posted
21 April 2018
Victoria Miro announces representation of The Estate of Ilse D’Hollander
The first London exhibition of works by the Belgian artist will be held at Victoria Miro Mayfair in November 2018. Paintings by D’Hollander are featured as part of the gallery’s exhibition of abstract painting by women, Surface Work. -
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Exhibition
Posted
22 March 2018
John Kørner: Running Problems at Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens
For his first museum exhibition of the artist in Belgium (25 March – 17 June 2018) Kørner creates an integrated environment of painting and installation. Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium -
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Exhibition
Posted
3 April 2018
Celia Paul, curated by Hilton Als, at the Yale Center for British Art
The exhibition (3 April – 12 August 2018), specially selected by Als in collaboration with the artist and a deeply personal testament to their transatlantic friendship, will focus on Paul’s recent works, New Haven, Connecticut -
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Exhibition
Posted
6 April 2018
Grayson Perry: Folk Wisdom at Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki
The exhibition (13 April – 2 September 2018) is produced in collaboration with La Monnaie de Paris museum, where it will be on view during autumn 2018. Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki -
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Exhibition
Posted
20 March 2018
The 21st Biennale of Sydney, featuring NS Harsha
A new work by NS Harsha will be on display in the Art Gallery of New South Wales (16 March – 11 June 2018). Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney -
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Exhibition
Posted
7 March 2018
Do Ho Suh: Almost Home at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
The exhibition (16 March - 5 August 2018) will feature a major installation of the artist’s Hub sculptures along with a group of semi-transparent replicas of household objects, titled Specimens. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC -
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Picture story
Posted
12 May 2018
Anatomy of an Artwork: Elizabeth Murray’s Maybe True
Skye Sherwin writes about Murray's painting, which is on display as part of Surface Work at Wharf Road until 19 May. Skye Sherwin, The Guardian -
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Interview
Posted
11 May 2018
Do Ho Suh talks to the FT about his new film, commissioned by the V&A
The artist talks to Rachel Spence about his new film, commissioned by the V&A. The film will be shown as part of Robin Hood Gardens: A Ruin in Reverse, curated by Christopher Turner and Olivia Horsfall Turner, a special project at the Applied Arts Pavilion at the Biennale Architettura 2018, presented La Biennale di Venezia and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Rachel Spence, The Financial Times -
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Exhibition
Posted
26 March 2018
Isaac Julien: Ten Thousand Waves at The Whitworth
Ten Thousand Waves (on display 30 March – 28 August 2018) is the most recent in a series of major moving image acquisitions by the Whitworth, and was supported through Art Fund’s Moving Image Fund. The Whitworth, Manchester -
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Exhibition
Posted
1 March 2018
Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors at the Art Gallery of Ontario
The major exhibition (3 March – 27 May 2018) continues its North American tour. Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto -
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Publications
18 May 2018
Chantal Joffe: Personal Feeling Is the Main Thing
A new book on the acclaimed British painter Chantal Joffe. Features paintings from across Joffe’s career, as well as a number of works by the pioneering German artist Paula Modersohn-Becker, and includes new texts by art historian Dorothy Price, Professor of Art History at the University of Plymouth, Gemma Blackshaw, and writer and critic Olivia Laing. Elephant Publishing, 2018Chantal Joffe: Personal Feeling Is the Main Thing£ 35.00Add to cart -
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Preview
Posted
10 May 2018
Vogue writes about Tal R: this is not Detroit at MOCA Detroit
Detroit has always played an outsized role in the American imagination. It was Motown. It was rock n' roll. In its boom days it was Motor City, land of the American dream and the best of American manufacturing, an industry that enabled highways, suburbs, road trips, and our willful sprawl across the continent. Julia Felsenthal, Vogue -
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Feature
Posted
6 May 2018
As part of its Contemporary Classics series, Elephant writes about Black Hands, Chris Ofili’s clock commission for PEER
'Black Hands provides a welcome moment of contemplation on a busy London street, and takes a unique approach to the notion of public art.' Holly Black, Elephant -
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Exhibition
Posted
27 April 2018
Wangechi Mutu and Barnaby Furnas to feature in Chaos and Awe: Painting for the 21st Century, coming to the Frist Art Museum
The exhibition (22 June – 16 September 2018) features works that induce feelings of disturbance, mystery, and expansiveness through the portrayal of forces shaping and hastening social transformation in ways that are increasingly difficult to predict. Frist Art Museum, Nashville, Tennessee -
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Exhibition
Posted
25 April 2018
Stephen Willats: Control at Tate Liverpool
A project and events programme (25 April – 16 May 2018) devoted to Control Magazine. Founded in 1965 by Stephen Willats, Control remains one of the few artists' publications from the 1960s thriving to this day. Tate Liverpool -
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Event
Posted
25 April 2018
Do Ho Suh to take part in the Words/Works/Walls conference, Oxford
Words/Works/Walls: Conceptual Architectures in Visual Cultures (11 May 2018) is a day conference in consideration of walls as barriers, as modes of presentation, as frameworks for understanding, and as key components of global visual culture. Ertegun House, Oxford -
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Event
Posted
25 April 2018
Njideka Akunyili Crosby in conversation with Naomi Beckwith
An in-conversation event (26 July 2018) as part of Anderson Ranch's Summer Series. Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass Village, Colorado -
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Interview
Posted
25 April 2018
The May issue of Apollo features a cover story interview with Chantal Joffe
As she prepares for exhibitions at Victoria Miro Venice (14 April – 19 May 2018) and The Lowry (19 May – 2 September 2018), the artist discusses her most recent body of work with Harriet Baker. -
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Review
Posted
24 April 2018
Surface Work is Time Out’s Show of the Week
★★★★ 'This show of abstract art by women isn't just a powerful statement that women were there too, but that they were knocking up some of the best abstraction in the biz in the process.' Eddy Frankel, Time Out -
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Event
Posted
23 April 2018
Sarah Sze to give the Bobbie and Mike Wilsey Distinguished Lecture for 2018
The artist discusses her work in a free public talk (6-7.30pm, 10 May 2018) held at Stanford University. No registration is necessary. Doors from 5.30pm. Hauck Auditorium, Stanford University -
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Preview
Posted
22 April 2018
Elephant features Adriana Varejão’s Parede con Incisão a la Fontana 3 in its Contemporary Classics column
'Adriana Varejão's slashes after Lucio Fontana have a more gruesome story to tell than her predecessor's punctures, making it a fitting inclusion in a groundbreaking new show on female abstract painters at Victoria Miro gallery in London.' Charlotte Jansen, Elephant -
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Review
Posted
20 April 2018
Louisa Buck reviews Surface Work in The Telegraph
'This museum-quality show brings together more than 50 international artists… to confirm that women are – and always have been – at the forefront of non-figurative art.' Louisa Buck, The Telegraph -
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Exhibition
Posted
14 April 2018
Secundino Hernández at Taidehalli, Helskini
An exhibition (14 April – 13 May 2018) of new paintings in addition to a selection of works from the past five years. Kunsthalle Helsinki -
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Exhibition
Posted
13 April 2018
Stan Douglas in Shape of Light: 100 Years of Photography and Abstract Art at Tate Modern
This major exhibition (2 May – 14 October 2018) tells the intertwined stories of photography and abstract art. Tate Modern -
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Review
Posted
13 April 2018
Caroline Douglas, Director of the Contemporary Art Society, writes about Surface Work in her Friday Dispatch
'How interesting to consider that through those macho times, it was these brave, smart women who were doing the business.' contemporaryartsociety.org Caroline Douglas -
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Exhibition
Posted
12 April 2018
David Harrison curates The Lore of the Land at Churchgate Gallery, Porlock
The exhibition (30 April – 30 May 2018) brings together artists including Anne Ryan, Abigail Lane, Peter Doig, Ross Taylor and Nicky Hoberman, who have been invited to respond to the exhibition title with interpretations ranging from folklore, the land, legends and myths to landscapes; urban or bucolic, threatening or seductive. Porlock, Somerset -
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Channel
11 April 2018
Chantal Joffe: Pastels
A short film on the occasion of the artist's exhibition of new and recent pastels at Victoria Miro Venice (14 April – 19 May 2018). -
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Review
Posted
10 April 2018
Matthew Collings reviews Surface Work the Evening Standard
★★★★ 'Surface Work has a lot of playfulness as well as dignity.' Matthew Collings, Evening Standard -
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Exhibition
Posted
7 April 2018
Do Ho Suh: Passage/s, coming to Towada Art Center
An exhibition (2 June – 14 October 2018) featuring an installation Suh's Hub works, along with the video My Home/s, 2014-2016. Towada Art Center, Aomori, Japan -
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Exhibition
Posted
7 April 2018
Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors, coming to The Cleveland Museum of Art
Focusing on the evolution of her immersive Infinity Mirror Rooms, the most significant North American tour of Kusama’s work in nearly two decades continues at The Cleveland Art Museum (7 July – 30 September 2018). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio -
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Feature
Posted
6 April 2018
Skin, Or Surface: Simone White writes about Njideka Akunyili Crosby in Frieze
'Skin, or surface – the painting’s surface itself – is thus implicated in a history of (unexamined) ideas about seeing the black woman.' Frieze Simone White -
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Exhibition
Posted
6 April 2018
Stephen Willats is featured in Fashioned from Nature at the V&A
Willats’ Variable Sheets/Optical Shift, 1965, is included in the exhibition (21 April 2018 – 27 January 2019), which invites visitors to think about the materials of fashion and the sources of their clothes. V&A, London -
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Preview
Posted
3 April 2018
Francesca Gavin writes about Surface Work in the Financial Times
'It demonstrates how women have been central to the development of the dialogue around the abstract – the 20th century’s most defining change in visual culture.' Francesca Gavin, The Financial Times -
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Exhibition
Posted
1 April 2018
Grayson Perry – Julie Cope’s Grand Tour: The Story of a Life, opening soon at Shipley Art Gallery
A Crafts Council touring exhibition (5 May – 28 July 2018) of two large-scale tapestries. Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead -
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Exhibition
Posted
26 March 2018
Grayson Perry: The Vanity of Small Differences tours to Bristol Art Museum
Inspired by Hogarth’s morality tale, A Rake’s Progress, Perry’s tapestries (on display 31 March – 24 June 2018) follow the socially-mobile life of fictional character Tim Rakewell from infancy to untimely death. Bristol Museum -
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Exhibition
Posted
24 March 2018
David Harrison in Sawdust and Sequins: The Art of the Circus
The exhibition (24 March – 3 June 2018) at the Royal West of England Academy also features work by Sir Peter Blake, Abigail Lane and many others. Royal West of England Academy, Bristol -
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Exhibition
Posted
20 March 2018
Grayson Perry in Things of Growing Beauty: British Studio Pottery at the Fitzwilliam Museum
A collaboration with Yale Center for British Art, where it was first displayed, the exhibition (20 March – 17 June 2018) traces the changing nature of British studio pottery through the evolution of specific types of vessel. The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge -
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Exhibition
Posted
17 March 2018
Inka Essenhigh: A Fine Line at Virginia MOCA
A survey (17 March – 19 August 2018) of some 30 paintings from across the artist's career. Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art -
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Profile
Posted
16 March 2018
Celia Paul writes in the FT about painting from life – and loss
'My mother sat for me for 30 years. I still feel very connected to her. The grief is not how I expected it to be.' Celia Paul, Financial Times -
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Exhibition
Posted
13 March 2018
Art Capital: Art for the Elizabeth line, featuring Chantal Joffe, Conrad Shawcross and Yayoi Kusama
The exhibition (13 March – 6 May 2018) brings together unseen material by Joffe, Shawcross, Kusama and all the artists contributing to the Crossrail Art Programme. Whitechapel Gallery -
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News story
Posted
13 March 2018
Yayoi Kusama to create her first permanent UK installation for the Elizabeth line at Liverpool Street
Kusama will create her first permanent UK installation, titled Infinite Accumulation, for the new Crossrail station at Liverpool Street. -
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News story
Posted
13 March 2018
Conrad Shawcross to create a major new public artwork for the Elizabeth line at Liverpool Street
'Manifold' will be a bronze sculpture positioned outside the Moorgate entrance of the Elizabeth line station. -
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News story
Posted
13 March 2018
The Art Newspaper reports on the announcement of Crossrail Art Programme works by Yayoi Kusama and Conrad Shawcross
Commuters travelling on the new Elizabeth line across London will encounter major new works by Yayoi Kusama and Conrad Shawcross at Liverpool Street as part of the Crossrail art programme. The Art Newspaper Gareth Harris -
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Exhibition
Posted
8 March 2018
Stephen Willats to feature in FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art
Titled An American City: Eleven Cultural Exercises, the inaugural edition of the Cleveland Triennial (14 July – 30 September 2018) comprises artist commissions, performances, films, and public programmes to examine the ever-changing and politically urgent conditions of an American city. Cleveland, Ohio -
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News story
Posted
6 March 2018
Do Ho Suh to create a new film for the V&A’s presentation Robin Hood Gardens: A Ruin in Reverse at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia
Suh's film will be screened in the Pavilion of Applied Arts (26 May – 25 November 2018) where the V&A will present Robin Hood Gardens: A Ruin In Reverse, centred around fragments of Robin Hood Gardens that will be transported to Venice from Poplar, East London. Venice, Italy -
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Exhibition
Posted
4 March 2018
Celia Paul in All Too Human: Bacon, Freud and a Century of Painting Life at Tate Britain
Tate Britain's major exhibition (28 February – 27 August 2018) celebrates painters in Britain who found new ways of depicting people, places, feelings and relationships. Tate Britain
In Focus
Mother Figure by Gemma Blackshaw
An essay by Gemma Blackshaw, Professor of Art History at the University of Plymouth, published to coincide with the opening of Chantal Joffe: Personal Feeling Is The Main Thing at The Lowry, Salford, and the forthcoming book, published by Elephant and Victoria Miro, in which excerpts of this essay appear.
Sunday 11 March
I woke for the first time this morning at a little after three. My daughter, who has started to sleep alone, had called out for me, and then for water. I held the cup in one hand, the back of her head in the other, leaning over her kneeling body, murmuring something. She drank deeply and then fell forwards on to the pillow, eyes closed. As she turned on to her side and felt my hand on her cheek, her ear, her hair, she said what she has said on every waking since leaving my bed six months ago: “Mummy, you stay there.”
My experience in pregnancy of the loss of self… has made it easier to undress and sit for Joffe
