MamaDotta
MamaDotta is an artist collective of mother Joyce Dallal and daughter Naima White. We are inspired to create work together based our experiences as women and as mothers.
Madonna Combine
By MamaDotta
Mother/Daughter artist collective
Joyce Dallal and Naima White
Clay, encaustic, oil, and vinyl flooring on panel with video
This inaugural piece of MamaDotta, was inspired by the birth of my daughter, Zadah Enheduanna Dallal Gannon-O’Gara. As her name exemplifies, names can signify and embody multiple things: family history, the place and time one is born in, and the dreams of the parents.
I was named after my great-grandmother who immigrated to the United States from Iraq. And in turn named my daughter in honor of my grandmother. Zadah’s middle name, Enheduanna, is after a bronze-age Sumerian poet and priestess in the temple of Inanna, goddess of love and fertility. Gannon-O’Gara is the hyphenated result of two Irish surnames from my husband’s parents.
The migration of these families, from east and west and converging in the United States, has resulted in the birth of this child. Our piece references ancient fertility figures, Irish and Coptic Madonnas, and mothering from a distance, since we are collaborating from opposite sides of the country.
Interlude
By MamaDotta
Mother/Daughter artist collective
Joyce Dallal and Naima White
Fabric, acrylic paint, wood, thread, fibers, screen printing, with video
Life is bookended by birth and death. It is the one thing all living things have in common. What happens before birth or after death is a mystery, source of endless imaginings. Are we born as unique and original personalities, or do we carry memories and traits from past lives? Beyond the biological, what emotional, philosophical, or cultural information do our genes confer on us?
“Interlude” is a space to imagine this state between non-being and being. Temporary structure/den/womb. Volcanic cracks in the earth/rivers/stretch marks on skin. One shape echoes the other in repeating patterns and cycles that form a circular structure framing life as we know it.