Mary Kelly. Rereading
Post-Partum Document
Publication to the exhibition from September to December 1998.
Ed. by Sabine Breitwieser. Preface by Dietrich Karner. Introduction by Sabine Breitwieser. Interview with Mary Kelly by July Carson. Texts by Isabelle Graw and Griselda Pollock. Statements by Silvia Eiblmayr, Dan Graham, Renée Green, Simon Leung, Susanne Lummerding and Dorit Margreiter.
Mary Kelly’s Post-Partum Document is a seminal work of the seventies in which the notion of site-specificity is addressed in a completely new way. In the introduction and six subsequent sections, Kelly’s relationship with her (male) child forms the basis for a wider interrogation of the subject’s entry into language. In her critical engagement with psychoanalysis and feminism as well as her provocative stance vis-à-vis conceptualism, Mary Kelly succeeded in creating a multi-faceted artwork documenting one of Modernism’s central and most symptomatic blind spots: woman as artist and mother. Her seven-year process of reflection and visualization has assumed a unique place within the history of art.
In 1988 at the Generali Foundation in Vienna the introduction and all consecutive six sections of Mary Kelly’s Post-Partum Document (1973-78) were shown together for the first time in an exhibition. For that occasion, the original Post-Partum Document publication, which this central work includes in book form, was republished. Along with that the first German translation was made available. Rereading Post-Partum Document brings the concept, the context and the historical and current reception into closer view. This publication thus represents an important supplement to the historical reprint. Published in addition to the documentation of the archival section compiled by July Carson there are contributions to the symposium and short statements by art historians and artists. In the comprehensive illustration section, which includes many color reprints, Post-Partum Document can be re-experienced from the perspective of this exhibition.