Material Continuity

1995
installation: 24 mylar screens with hang-panted images, aluminum frame, aluminum sheets, audio

Material Continuity both extremely objectifies the body and initiates a subjective act, which intensifies and reveals the oppositions that have left the body fragmented and rationalized. By hand-rendering a repetitive series of diagnostic chest cavity images on mylar which reference the dismemberment of the body by sophisticated medical imaging technology, the artist has created a large three dimensional corridor in which the fragmented body hovers in space like a numinous medical hologram. Despite its technological look, however, Kavanagh has meticulously hand painted the images to scale in a gesture meant to reclaim some personal territory defined by touch and physical presence. This intentionally exaggerated process is further intensified by menacingly suspended sheets of aluminum and an ambient audio component that shifts from the sounds of sliding steel to medieval chants.

In Kavanagh's work, there can be sudden transitions between metaphors for structures of power and rationalized assimilation. These shifts define, in a sense, a greater continuum of rationalizing processes and power structures, which have deep historical roots and continue to despiritualize or depersonalize the body. These same easy shifts, however, are also disquieting and provide the openings which invite an interrogation of the incongruities evident in so many orthodox methodologies. The ideologies are seen as far more threatening in these instances than the actual applications of technology.

From Tim Nowlin, "Mysterium Tremendum: an exhibition by Mary Kavanagh," Forest City Gallery, London ON, 1998.