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Collage of five diverse artworks from the Hammer Museum Collections side by side. From left to right: 1) Contemporary painting of two embracing figures with surreal elements. 2) Post-impressionist style painting of trees with vibrant blues and greens. 3) Black and white illustration of a face with intricate patterns. 4) Japanese woodblock print style image of a figure in a checkered robe. 5) Photograph of a couple dancing, the woman in a black dress and the man in white

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Digital Archive Take It or Leave It: Institution, Image, Ideology
Art Mary Kelly, Mimus Act I (Posner)
Mary Kelly, Mimus Act I (Posner), 2012

Mary Kelly, Artist
Mimus Act I (Posner) , 2012

Medium
Compressed lint, archival card
Dimensions
Frame: 83 3/4 x 61 x 2 1/2 in. (212.7 x 154.9 x 6.4 cm)
Credit Line
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. Purchased with funds provided by Erika Glazer.
Accession No.
AH.2013.19.1

Mary Kelly created her series of Mimus works by placing vinyl lettering on the filter screen of a domestic dryer and then running many loads of laundry until the accretion of lint surrounding the letters made the words visible as intaglio engravings. The appropriated texts are taken from the testimonies of Blanche Posner and Ruth Meyers, who appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1962 after participating in protests opposing nuclear testing as part of the organization Women Strike for Peace. Bringing together nuclear weaponry, motherhood, the judicial system, and the women's movement, Kelly's works stage an inherent and vital interrelationship between the personal and the political.