MK
lives in Albuquerque, NM
born in Columbus, MS
mnkndy.com | @mnkndy
Sulligent, Alabama, is a city in Lamar County with about two thousand residents, the birthplace of a handful of notable athletes who made names for themselves in both college and professional sports. It is also the jumping-off point for much of what artist MK (Monica Kennedy) investigates in their mixed-media work.
Currently residing in Albuquerque where they are pursuing an MFA in photography, MK began the recent series The Pain Is Just an Annoyance Now as members of their family began to pass away and they witnessed the grief of their mother. These losses spurred an exploration of the complications of family relationships, as well as obscured histories through the physical remnants of the past that shore up the present—family photo albums. Physically as well as metaphorically, MK buries reproductions as a means to both cope with and confront stories that have long been shrouded.
Ranging in size from two feet to more than seven end-to-end, Kennedy’s explorations of identity, family, and the stories that define us are moving, layering physical objects over charged photography. Shown at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, Blaffer Art Museum, and SITE Santa Fe, these works—which include media like printmaking and sculpture—fight the obliterating effect of time and silence. The work, as MK puts it, “now confronts, demands, and takes space that would otherwise never have been spoken about.”
