Womend & Their Work

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WOMEN & THEIR WORK // JULY 22 // 6-8PM

Women and Their WorK
1710 Lavaca St, Austin, TX 78701.
Open Monday - Friday 10 -6pm and Sat. 12-5pm, 512-477-1064.
womenandtheirwork.org

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Karen Mahaffy
Persistence of Moment
July 22 - September 2, 2010

In addition to presenting ephemeral time-based video works, several sculptures
in the exhibit were inspired by Mahaffy’s recent Research Fulbright to Estonia
and her snowy residency there. In Drift/Felt, Mahaffy presents wool in two states.
In Drift, two “blocks” of carded wool reference both snowy landscape and the
act of aimless wandering; in Felt, two felted insoles were created over two
months by walking through the streets of Tallinn, Estonia. The work suggests the
change in material via each step taken as well as the emotion and act of
walking through the city.

Through video, sculptural and drawn works, Karen Mahaffy creates reminders of
the exceptional contained among the ordinary and reifies our capacity to
recognize it. Articulating the elements between familiar spaces, objects and
experiences she investigates how place and time can become manifest. The
works in Persistence of Moment collectively address the seemingly insignificant,
singular act or event. These tiny acts accumulate to create a new aggregate
visual artifact. The video artifact may replace the act itself; like the way single
footsteps create a pathway; the single touch can collect to shine a spot on a
surface. The collection of the tiny act accumulates to a degree that it - the
accumulation- becomes more recognizable than the act itself.