Artist Katherine Hubbard is showcasing her solo exhibition at Studio Voltaire in London, featuring a series of photographs and installations titled 'The Great Room'. The works document her mother, Antonette Berger, who was diagnosed with LATE (limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy), a condition with symptoms similar to Alzheimer's but a slower decline.
Hubbard began photographing her mother in 2020 after sensing something was amiss, continuing for five years. The images were taken at Berger's apartment in Germantown, Philadelphia, a building Berger owned for 40 years. The apartment's main living space inspired the title 'The Great Room'.
Beyond traditional portraiture, Hubbard also created body prints with her mother in a darkroom. These 4x8 ft contact prints, made without a camera, involved them getting naked and covered in Vaseline to use their bodies as a printing tool on photo paper. Hubbard describes these prints as a "bridge to something more psychic, more energetic" between them.
Hubbard notes that her mother "gets a huge amount of strength and sense of value from being part of it, and she trusts me completely." The photographic process helped Hubbard navigate feelings of anger, frustration, and loss, leading to a sense of acceptance and love.