(Courtesy Hein Koh, Credit James Horowitz)
A New York artist with twins has a powerful response for a peer who recently said publicly that having children would have derailed her career, and her message is starting to go viral.
About two weeks ago on Facebook, Hein Koh, a sculptor based in Brooklyn, shared a photo of herself breastfeeding her twins while working on her laptop. She wrote in the photo caption that she felt compelled to share the May 2015 photo because performance artist Marina Abramovic told German newspaper Tagesspiegel in July that having children would have been “a disaster for her work.”
“One only has limited energy in the body, and I would have had to divide it,” Abramovi told the paper.
On Facebook, Koh wrote that her family has made a different kind of impact on her life and work.
“It may be true for her, but that is not everyone’s experience nor truth,” Koh wrote in the post, which had garnered more than 5,000 likes as of Friday morning. ‘Becoming a #mom (of twins no less) has personally helped me become a better #artist – I learned to be extremely efficient with my time, prioritize what’s important and let go of the rest, and #multitask like a champ.”
Koh likened parenthood to other life challenges— and said it has been the biggest challenge for her thus far— but, “if you embrace it and figure out creative solutions, you can emerge a better person,” she wrote.
Koh told Babble.com that she hopes the photo discourages people from passing judgment on moms.
“Regardless of our individual choices, women should support other women, and lead by example rather than attack,” she told the website. “That’s the kind of culture I want to promote.”