'Fons Lacrimae' Limited Edition Silk Twill Scarf 65 x 65cm

ALISON CONNEELY X UNFPA

Alice Maher - Fons Lacrimae

In response to maternal autonomy.

Fons Lacrimae takes us to the night sky where we see the great figures of our classical past such as Orion, Centaurus, Perseus et al, lifted up to heaven as constellations to remind us of our mythic origins. The star mapped figure of ‘Fons Lacrimae’ symbolises the experience of those women and girls of the Irish Magdalene Laundries and the Mother & Baby institutions of Australia and Canada. This figure is based on the historical Mary Magdalene, who is so often portrayed weeping for her ‘sins’. Her hair flows loose in grief and her tears pour endlessly into the ancient bowl of sorrow that never ends for those who have been shamed and enslaved, their children brutalised and sold.