EDINBURGH.- The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art has acquired the striking contemporary installation We Are Pro Choice, by 2008 Turner Prize-shortlisted artist Cathy Wilkes. The acquisition of this £44,000 work was made possible by a £19,000 grant from the independent charity The Art Fund.

We Are Pro Choice is a thought-provoking piece which comments on the limiting conventions of female domesticity. A female mannequin sits perched on a toilet with ornamental bells juxtaposed against two fizzy drinks cans dangling from wire around her face. The mannequin sits surrounded by domestic ephemera including a ladder, a broken clock, a plastic child’s tennis racquet and an oil stained canvas. We Are Pro Choice offers a cryptic, deliberately enigmatic meditation on the pertinent issues in a woman’s life of motherhood, domestication and the passing of time.

Andrew Macdonald, Acting Director of The Art Fund, said: "Through the strategic placing of commonplace objects, Cathy Wilkes draws on familiar themes but in an unusual and arresting way. The Art Fund is thrilled to be able to help with this acquisition."

Simon Groom, Director of Modern and Contemporary Art, National Galleries of Scotland, said: "We are Pro Choice is a major work by a major artist. The support of The Art Fund has enabled us to fill a significant gap within the collection, and to enable the gallery to continue to bring the best of modern and contemporary art to the public."

Wilkes was born in Belfast in 1966, and moved to Glasgow at the age of 19 where she attended Glasgow School of Art. We Are Pro Choice went on temporary display at the SNGMA and featured as part of the New Art from Scotland exhibition in 2008. Wilkes is one of the most prominent artists in Scotland at the moment and was nominated and shortlisted for the prestigious Turner Prize in 2008 for her solo exhibition at the Milton Keynes Gallery. Wilkes also represented Scotland in the 2005 Venice Biennale.

We Are Pro Choice joins other works acquired by the SNGMA with the help of The Art Fund, including Ron Mueck’s A Girl, Tracey Emin’s Family Suite and Francesca Woodman’s Photographs from the 'Self Deceit' series.