MOTHER. MONSTER. STITCH.

Mother. Monster. Stitch.
A Monographic Exhibition by Hannalie Taute
Curated by Karolien van Zyl

In Mother. Monster. Stitch., the family portrait misbehaves.

Hannalie Taute pierces and re-stitches the rituals of womanhood – weddings, motherhood, composure – transforming them into something raw, tactile, and alive. Working with discarded rubber, thread, and vintage photographs, she turns the domestic archive inside out. Each puncture becomes thought; each stitch, a refusal to stay quiet.

Taute works as both archivist and trickster.

She raids the cupboards of domestic mythology – the wedding album, the family photograph, the “happy wife” – and rewires them with laughter and mischief. Through her hands, the grotesque becomes a form of wit, and repair turns to rebellion.

Here, the monstrous feminine isn’t horror but vitality – a language of becoming. Her figures laugh, unravel, and re-form; humour and horror share the same thread. The handmade resists the digital; the imperfect becomes proof of life.

Across the exhibition, the emotional pulse shifts from ritual to rebellion to repair. The home becomes a theatre of survival – every mask, every flower, every caption a negotiation between care and control.

Look closely: what you call monstrous may simply be the truth showing through.