Margaret Scott
National Health?, 2022
Nuno Felted Merino Wool on Silk, Printed Canvas and stitch on a wooden frame 187cm high, 465cm long, 32cm wide
Part of the 'Five Times More' series of Felts
Margaret Scott
National Health ? //2, 2020
Nuno Felted Merino Wool on Silk and stitch 170cm x 120cm
Part of the 'Five Times More' series of Felts
Margaret Scott
ICU //3, 2016
Aluminium Print 90cm x 60 cm
Part of the 'ICU' portrait series of Felts and prints
Margaret Scott
Waiting //2, 2021
Print on Hahnmuhle fina art paper Image 40cm x 53 cm, Print 50cm x 63cm
Part of the 'Five Times More' series of Limited Edition Prints
Margaret Scott
Touch //2, 2021
Nuno Felted Merino Wool on Silk 114cm x 80 cm
Part of the 'Five Times More' series of Felts
Margaret Scott
Touch //1, 2021
Nuno Felted Merino Wool on Silk 114cm x 80 cm
Part of the 'Five Times More' series of Felts
Margaret Scott
STATS, 2021
Nuno Felted Merino Wool on Silk 170cm x 120cm
The success of the social justice movements of the 1960s drove scholars in a range of disciplines to increase efforts to understand human inequalities. Over the last sixty years researchers have created a constantly growing library of data which provides empirical evidence of inequalities between groups. Whilst such research is necessary in the pursuit of a more equitable society, it also reduces groups of people to figures on a page, all but removing the people they represent. With STATS Maggie Scott has depicted the ghost-like silhouettes of two women whose faces have been drained of colour and are mostly obscured by large and ostensibly meaningless numbers. STATs sits within a body of work that seeks to illustrate the abstract numbers of the MRBACE UK Perinatal Mortality report with the faces of healthy young women, addressing the need to humanise people who are the subject of such reports explicitly.
Margaret Scott
Five Times More, 2020
Nuno Felted Merino Wool on Silk 119cm x 166cm
Rates of maternal mortality have dropped dramatically in Britain since the mid 18th century. However, the effects of modern medicine have not been felt equally. In 2019 MBRACE UK published data within its Perinatal Mortality report which revealed that people of colour remain at a much higher risk during pregnancy and childbirth within the British healthcare system. Most disturbingly the report revealed that in the United Kingdom a black woman is five times more likely to die during childbirth than her white counterpart.
Margaret Scott
Five Times, 2021
Nuno Felted Merino Wool on Silk 119cm x 166cm
The subject stands with her hands on either side of her belly in a familiar gesture; at once protective and filled with love. Her identity is obscured allowing audience members to see a version of themselves reflected in the portrait. The image itself promises joy in the prospect of a newborn, however the title alludes to the significant inequality British women of colour face during pregnancy and childbirth.
Margaret Scott
One Hundred And Twenty One, 2021
Nuno Felted Merino Wool on Silk 110cm x 175cm
One Hundred and Twenty-One is a portrait of a young mother cradling her newborn. Traces of exhaustion often found in the faces of new parents can be detected in her gentle smile, yet the viewer is struck by the tenderness of the portrait which speaks to the profound bond between mother and child. While the image itself is heart-warming, the title of this work alludes to tragedy. MBRACE UK’s 2019 study on Perinatal Mortality revealed that black babies have a 50% increased risk of neonatal death, and a 121% increased risk of stillbirth compared to their white counterparts. This figure imbues the portrait with ambiguity, the expression of the young mother becomes harder to read; is it relief, or heartbreak, or even imagined?
