In her work, the American photo, video and performance artist focuses on humans and their relationships with one another by visually deconstructing traditional social patterns. Her compositions are often disconcerting or even uncanny at second glance and can enter into a confrontation with the viewer and their expectations.
Not only is the mother recognisably wearing a wig in every picture, but the impression of human closeness and maternal care soon gives way to a disturbing detail: the child is a hyper-realistic doll, a so-called reborn doll made of silicone. Diamond has been in contact with the Reborners community for several years, with women who share their lives with such a child substitute because they cannot or do not want to have children of their own. They maintain a close bond with the doll, give them names (the artist's doll is named Annabelle) and lovingly care for them as if they were their own child.
The inspiration for these scenes comes from a diary that Diamond kept as a girl. She herself plays the role of her mother, whose appearance she imitates with clothes and a wig. Diamond stages memories here, and she uses both her role and the baby doll to debunk the cliché of the ‘perfect’, constantly caring mother.
This performative series of works is, as Diamond says, ‘an exploration of the complexities surrounding the paradox of the mother/child relationship, investigating both its vernacular and art-historical depictions, while mimicking and ignoring the traditional visual signifiers of motherhood’.
Jamie Diamond's photographs thus go beyond pure role-play, beyond childish fantasy, and they offer more than the re-enactment of a curious behavioural phenomenon. They are about the role of women, motherhood and human needs at the boundaries of social constructs. It is particularly when deviations from traditional notions become apparent, when she strips the idyll of any authenticity ‘by faking it’, that Diamond's pictures become uncannily attractive and confrontational at the same time.
Jamie Diamond (b. 1983) lives in Brooklyn, New York. Her works have been the subject of exhibitions at the Fondazione Prada, Hong Kong; the Osservatorio Fondazione Prada, Milan (2019) ; Mana Contemporary, Chicago (2017); and in group exhibitions including the Museum für neue Kunst in Freiburg (2022); Deichtorhallen, Hamburg; the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal (2021); Huis Marseille, Amsterdam (2020); Museo d'Arte Contemporanea della Sicilia, Palermo (2019); Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA (2015, 2016, 2018); Bronx Museum, New York, NY (2015); Mana Contemporary Miami, FL, and Jersey City, NJ (2018, 2019).
