Whitworth Art Gallery-Mary Kelly

Four decades of projects by American artist Mary Kelly are brought together in this exhibition at the Whitworth Art Gallery. Kelly's work reflects back to us how we remember and talk about our experiences, from world wars to daily struggles. Words are most often her material, She treats voices as found objects that she collects, then carves or models into visual forms. When walking around the exhibition, narrative is as much about the experience of space as it is about the story that unfolds between words and objects.

Habitus 2010



Kelly's most recent work recounts the memories of the generation born during, or just after, the Second World War. The structure is based on the Anderson Shelter, which was mass-produced for home use during air raids in Britain. The structure is 'corrugated' with texts that are legible only by looking down 'underground' into its mirrored floor. The stories look back to what Kelly calls 'the political primal scene', or question of origins, beyond the sexual scenario, to formative and violent world events such as the Holocaust, Hiroshima and the Vietnam War.