Mary Kelly
Post-Partum Document: Documentation IV, Transitional Objects, Diary and Diagram (prototype)
1976/2015
Plexiglass, card, plaster, cotton string, ink, and wood, 11 units
Not on view
Developed over six years as part of a larger series begun after the birth of her son, this work charts Kelly’s shifting relationship with him as he acquired language, gained self-awareness, and moved towards independence. Kelly resists the maternal archetypes dictated by society that define what a mother and son’s relationship should be. Here, each panel pairs psychoanalytic diagrams with plaster casts of her son’s hand and stories about his maturation, typewritten on scrap pieces of his baby blanket. Speaking as both a mother and artist, Kelly recalled that she ended the project “because there was a moment when there were two very autonomous subjects and it terrified me.”
Vital Signs: Artists and the Body, November 3–February 22, 2024
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