In Conversation: Mary Kelly speaks to Paula McCloskey

Presented below are extracts from a conversation with the contemporary artist Mary Kelly which took place in February 2011 at the Whitworth Gallery, Manchester, surrounded by a large selection of her work during the Mary Kelly: Projects, 1973-2010 exhibition. Kelly’s oeuvre is undoubtedly diverse and progressive, but it is also coherent and interconnected. During our dialogue, Kelly reflected on her approach to art-making; making links between her works, connecting her projects across time and space. What follows is a hybrid text containing extracts of the conversation with Kelly and some observations made after reading the full transcript. The overall piece contemplates the connections across Kelly’s work and specifically draws attention to the place of the mother and child in her projects