“With the masks and the roles, MATERNAL FANTASIES articulate their rejection of the idealized and exclusive mother role personified in the holy Madonna with child (and the concept of immaculate conception) within Christian, patriarchal mythology. In this context, the two animal masks (octopus and raven) self-ironically challenge one-sided and stereotypical views of mothers as either “holy” or “monstrous,” e.g., as expressed in the term Rabenmutter (Rabenmutter is a German swear word for a bad mother, one who neglects her children because of a professional occupation).”