Barbed focuses on generational traumas, using barbed wire as my primary material and large format photography to document. This piece focuses on my mother and Abuela and the romanticization of motherhood in religion. Regardless of the pain, struggles, and traumas mothers go through, they are always expected to keep the peace and remain perfect mothers. There are a lot of unsaid expectations of motherhood that can cause many women to lose themselves in the process. This set documents this as the feminine figure continues to work on the laundry. Regardless of the barbed wire pricking her, she chooses to ignore it.It seems to be taboo to say these things about motherhood and that it is not all perfect; that mothers can think of life without children or have moments of weakness. Like any other phase in one's life, motherhood can be terrifying and hopeless; however, the ideal of the woman as the helper, as the caretaker that is pushed in Christianity, has caused my mother to struggle to face the rejection of this idea.


