Cox’s photographs offer a sense of intimacy and comfort amid loneliness. Her images often highlight a subject enveloped in shadows, with some sort of light that leaks through and permeates the darkness. Waiting (Persephone) (2008), whose title refers to the Greek goddess of spring abducted to the underworld and only allowed to return briefly each year, is about yearning and solace. The subject peers through window blinds, and what lies beyond is unknown. The image’s physical scale allows the viewer to feel as if they share the space with the subject, reciprocating sympathy and consolation.
–LIMINALITIES

Artist Statement (2024):

This piece was made in 2008 from a larger body of work involving photographs of my mother as she cared for my grandmother who was dying of lung cancer. This image has come full circle, as my mother recently passed away and I was caring for her in the years leading up to this. 

These elegiac images were my attempt to document my mother living alone for the first time in her life. I realized when I made them that my personal family narrative paralleled aspects and elements from mythology. The portraits of my mother were staged but also involved an element of collaboration. The framework of mythology is useful in terms of the complexities and contradictions of the personal relationships I am describing. 

In Persephone, my mother stands in a nearly dark room. The only source of light comes from the bedroom blinds which she secretly peers through. Her character in this image could have several roles: that of the mother who mourns the abduction of her child or the daughter caught in the underworld. Just like her ancient counterpart, my mother spent her life and defined her identity by being caught in the middle of the roles of mother and daughter. 

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