The Quickening: A memoir on matrescence
Shortlisted for the 2020 Lucie Foundation Prototype Book Prize, the Perimeter x PHOTO2021 International Book Prize and awarded with the silver award for the 2020 BIFA Documentary Photo Book Prize, an Honorable Mention for the Tokyo International Foto Awards and Official Selection for the London International Creative Competition 2020, The Quickening details the claustrophobia, myopia, paradoxical loneliness and luminance of new motherhood and the postpartum period.
This offset printed and uniquely crafted book has a limited run of 250 copies, redolent of the number of days of gestation before the premature birth of the author’s son. Additionally, 30 special editions that each come with a choice of one of two prints, were created to reflect the number of days left until the child’s due date. Deliberately created as an editioned art book, each copy is signed and numbered. A variety of papers are used to reflect a complexity of perception and a voluptuous french fold feels full and fleshy in the hands. A chaotic and varying bind with red string is a nod to the stitches used during the emergency caesarean birth of the child and no book is precisely the same.
Prior to publishing, the project has won multiple recognitions, including Honorable Mention in the Julia Margaret Cameron Award, a finalist place in the Vevey Images Grand Prix, participation in the celebrated group show titled, “Birth,” at TJ Boulting Gallery in London and a solo show at Rencontres d’Arles in France in 2019.
SEE THE PROJECT
"The pictures in The Quickening are a gorgeous cacophony of tender and tension-filled scenes interwoven with moments of luminosity which show how easily the lightest moments of motherhood can slip into the difficult ones (and back again). There’s a softness to the pictures, too – a dreaminess that feels like the first moments of waking up, where everything is a little blurry and sleep images linger."
- Refinery29
"Ang’s depiction of matrescence is layered and complex. Her images blend the gentle and soft, with a strain and rawness that becomes all-consuming. Velvety skin is enveloped in warm, delicate light. But, motifs of that tenderness behind misted glass at once suggest fullness and a claustrophobic repetition. The narrative is textured and sensual; it mirrors the intensity of Ang’s lived experience."
- British Journal of Photography
Book launch in Melbourne, Australia, scheduled for World Maternal Mental Health Day in May, 2021.
Contact email@le-space.com for updates.
PRE-ORDERS:
Special Edition + “Veil” print
US$180 // *150 Euros // *AU$230 inc. postage
Signed and numbered book 1 - 15
8 x 10 inch signed and numbered Collector’s Print, titled “Veil”, in edition 1 - 15
*indicative exchange rate
Special Edition + “Cake” print
US$180 // *150 Euros // *AU$230 inc. postage
Signed and numbered book 16 - 30
8 x 10 inch signed and numbered Collector’s Print, titled “Cake”, in edition 1 - 15
*indicative exchange rate
Limited Edition
US$120 // *100 Euros // *AU$155 inc. postage
Signed and numbered book 31 - 280
*indicative exchange rate
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90 pages with 116 images
Various paper stock, french fold and section-sewn
Softcover with linen sleeve
8.6 x 11 inches
First Edition of 280 + 20 AP
Self Published
ISBN: 978-0-646-83323-1
Offset printing in various papers in the Netherlands
Photos & text
© 2021 Ying Ang
Edit
Ying Ang
Teun van der Heijden
Design
Heijdens Karwei, Amsterdam