Margaret Salmon

Continuing on with my research into other artists, I am also interested to discover more about the filmmaker Margaret Salmon who won last years MaxMara women-only art prize having just become a mother. The prize funded her proposal to make a trilogy of films in Italy around the theme of the lullaby. I understand this work is now complete and that her husband and baby were able to travel with her. It was shown at the Whitechapel Gallery at the beginning of this year and unfortunately missed it but apparently she filmed three very tired new mothers. Writing in the Evening Standard, Nick Haworth says ‘Each film presents a day in the life of an Italian mother. A softly sung Florentine lullaby, Ninna Nanna Fiorentina, provides their soothing and melancholy soundtrack. This gently depressive element pervades the work as the women spend much of the day in the dark, sunlight creeping in only through gaps in curtains. Two of them wear only nightclothes, surrendering every personal concern to the rhythms of childcare. Though in constant contact with their babies, they are shown here isolated and alone. It's hard not to feel a kind of pity for this rawly instinctive love that is not always reciprocated.'