Birth of Mammy #4

Joyce Scott, Birth of Mammy #4, 2004, glass, beads, wire, thread, and wood, 23 ¹⁄₈ × 12 × 13 ¹⁄₈ in. (58.7 × 30.5 × 33.3 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Sara M. & Michelle Vance Waddell in honor of Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi, 2022.42.1

Artwork Details

Title: Birth of Mammy #4
Artist: Joyce Scott
Date: 2004
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: 23 ¹⁄₈ × 12 × 13 ¹⁄₈ in. (58.7 × 30.5 × 33.3 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Sara M. & Michelle Vance Waddell in honor of Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi
Mediums: wood
wire
thread
glass
beads
Mediums Description: glass, beads, wire, thread, and wood
Classifications: Sculpture
Subjects: Figure female — full length
Object Number: 2022.42.1
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2022.42.1

Artwork Description

Beadwork for me was about extending my family's techniques of needle and thread, and I put a bead on it.
--Joyce Scott

Birth of Mammy #4 humanizes the racist stereotype of a "mammy," a Black caretaker of white children. Joyce Scott combines a clear glass vessel and vivid beadwork to craft a notably tactile, visceral portrait of a Black woman in the immediate aftermath of childbirth. The newborn holds a pair of scissors, presumably severing connection to the mother. The subject challenges caricatures of so-called mammies as happy and loyal to their white families at the expense of their own children. Scott says, "I believe in messing with stereotypes, prodding the viewer to reassess, inciting people to look and then carry something home--even if it's subliminal--that might make a change in them."
Scott has created a Birth of Mammy series to imagine origin stories for the women behind the racist trope, turning the stereotype on its head and demanding the restoration of the woman's connection to her body, her child, and her own narrative.