Mary Kelly, Artist
Mimus, Act II (Meyers)
, 2012
Medium
Compressed lint, archival card
Dimensions
83 1/2 x 61 x 2 in. (212.1 x 154.9 x 5.1 cm) (framed)
Credit Line
Courtesy of the artist and Postmasters Gallery, New York. Image courtesy of the artist
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.