An expectant mother finds herself out of sight during the pandemic; with eyes tightly
shut during labor; with eyes seeking contact with an infant’s gaze and trying out a
toddler’s underfoot line of vision; and with eyes wide open straining to keep both in
sight during expeditions to the playgrounds and museums of Warsaw, Poland.
Apertures of nurturing.

In her autobiographical photobook Running to the Sun, artist Antonina Gugała
weaves images of moments in time paced to the clock of parenting—an alternately
hustling or stalling mechanism—with capsule texts detailing motherhood envisioned
and navigated through various forms of isolation and societal rupture. And all while
molding an evolving identity as artist-researcher and mother-of-two attempting to
balance generative practices of creation and caregiving.

Written by Stefan Lorenzutti