Mary Mulrey

My practice explores the connection between care, loss, and physical deterioration through work based on my late uncle’s farm, a place shaped by generations of care and labour. As his health declined, the farm also began to deteriorate, becoming a place where personal loss and material decay quietly mirror one another.

Working across handmade paper, sculpture, photography, and frottage, I respond directly to the surfaces and objects found on site. Wet handmade paper is gently pressed into walls, floors, and worn surfaces, allowing it to take the shape of what it touches. Once lifted away, these fragile casts hold traces of contact through texture, dirt, marks, and impressions.

The installation brings together hanging paper casts, photographic prints, and sculpture, using handmade paper as both a record of contact and a fragile gesture of care. The paper acts like a temporary skin, touching, covering, and holding traces of a place that cannot be fully repaired. The work sits with the desire to hold onto what remains while acknowledging inevitable change.