There’s nothing like being pregnant to make you feel like a vessel. Misogynist right-wing talking points about how a woman’s raison d’être is to be a mother aside, growing another human inside your body tends to make you abundantly aware that you are indeed a container holding something. Something which, in an ultrasound, looks strange and mysterious and alienlike. 

So the fact that Liz McCarthy began crafting “baby vessel instruments,” now on view at Roman Susan, while pregnant makes perfect sense. The somewhat monstrous, slightly larger than newborn-sized sculptures, made primarily out of glazed porcelain, are plastered with the detritus of life—that of McCarthy, her partner, and their child. I particularly enjoyed the bottle nipples and breast pump tubes that adhere to A Good Eater Whistle. Others feature shredded health insurance statements, human hair, baby clothing remnants, and fragments of text by John Locke.

While at the opening, I witnessed a small child pick up one of the babies, hold it to his mouth, and blow. Don’t worry—this is encouraged, as the sculptures are also working whistles. McCarthy has embedded between six and eight whistles within each piece, accessible to visitors via various openings in the sculpture’s bodies. “Some of the whistles are tuned to have a ‘voice’ sound, while others are tuned to have a high-pitched ‘screaming’ sound,” McCarthy explained. The whistles help activate the sculptures, bringing in an element of play and touch. By inviting visitors to (carefully) interact with these works, McCarthy is also inducing what it’s like to care for a child. (This intention also seems to be reflected by the installation of some of the vessels in oversize Mickey Mouse–like hands.) If you want to see these pieces in action, McCarthy is choreographing a March 1 performance at the gallery, wherein the artist and fathers of newborns will be giving voice to the whistles. In the meantime, the vessels are just sitting there, waiting to be filled with your breath and expectations.

“The Expectancies”
Through 3/1: Thu, Sun, Mon 4–7 PM, Roman Susan, 1224 W. Loyola, romansusan.org/THE-EXPECTANCIES