Janine Antoni
Umbilical
New York City, USA: Luhring Augustine Gallery, 2000
4.4 x 18.4 x 6.4 cm.
Edition of 35 [+ 6 AP] signed and numbered copies
Cast sterling silver of family silverware with negative impression of artist's mouth and mother's hand, accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist.
Other examples from this edition are in the Collections of the Center for Curatorial Studies, Hessel Museum of Art at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson and Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo.
In 2012 at Christie's auction house, against an estimate of between four and six thousand US dollars, this work sold for $17, 500 US.
"Umbilical examines the relationship between the mother’s body and that of the child. The silver spoon is an object that speaks of domesticity, ritualization and the fetishization of a tool used for a basic need. Using her family’s silverware, Antoni cast the inside of her adult mouth at the bowl of the spoon and the space inside her mother’s hand at the handle. The work traces the trajectory from body to home. As Antoni says, “At first I fed from my mother’s body and then from this spoon. Finally passed down to me to feed others.”"
