Mary Kelly's Post-Partum Document. Documentation iii: Analysed Markings And Diary Perspective Schema (Experimentum Mentis iii: Weaning From the Dyad) is currently on view at Tate Britain, London, as part of the collection presentation "Modern and Contemporary British Art: Ideas into Action: 1965-1980".
Kelly's Post-Partum Document is a six-year exploration of the mother-child relationship. When first exhibited in London in Kelly’s solo exhibition at the ICA in 1976, the work provoked tabloid outrage for incorporating a series of stained nappy liners in the installation. Each of the six-part series concentrates on a formative moment in her son’s mastery of language and her own sense of loss, moving between the voices of the mother, child and analytic observer. Informed by feminism and psychoanalysis, the work has had a profound influence on the development and critique of conceptual art.
Kelly is also currently included in Vital Signs, Artists and the Body, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY. Later this year she will be included in Women in Revolt! Art, Activism and the Women’s Movement in the United Kingdom 1970 – 11990, The Whitworth, Manchester (2025), travelled from Tate Britain, London (2023-24) and The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art,1Edinburgh (2024-25); Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood, Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee (2025), travelled fromArnolfini, Bristol, UK (2024); Midlands Art Centre, Birmingham, UK (2024); and Millennium Gallery, Sheffield (2024-25); and a group exhibition at Palais de Tokyo, France.
