Exploring What’s Left Behind: ‘A Life Undone’ on Display at L.E. Phillips Library
Barbara Arnold, photos by Andrea Paulseth |
What’s to be done with all the “stuff” that remains after someone dies? Divvy things up among family and friends; have an estate, thrift, or rummage sale; hire an auctioneer where even a crate of unopened cereal boxes from a kitchen cupboard will be bid upon; sell on Facebook Marketplace, eBay, etc.; donate, donate, donate; or empty the house’s loose contents into black, plastic drawstring garbage bags and fling them into the trash.
If you are Ellen Mahaffy, visual artist and professor of photography and visual communication at UW-Eau Claire, none of the above will do. Instead, you carefully and purposefully curate what remains into art and create an exhibit.
“A Life Undone” is on display now through Dec. 30 on the third floor of the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library in Eau Claire. This exhibit, which focuses on Mahaffy's father, David, expands upon her 1993 exhibit “Nothing Was Ever Said,” which centered on her paternal grandfather, Robert.
In her artist’s statement, Mahaffy writes: “What is loss? What is memory? How does one live their life? I left my father. Now I am left with what he left behind.”
And what is left behind? A treasure trove.
What catches the eye initially is an aluminum lawn chair in front of a desk with a photo of her grandfather’s slide projector, and a sleeve of 72 meticulously described slides above a light box entitled “1958 Road Trip to California.” Sit down in that chair, don the headphones, and you’ll hear Mahaffy, her partner, Pam, and her father musing about the day-to-day and what-have-you. Truly, a slice of life.
“Excavate” is the operative word when you view another piece, “David’s Kitchen (2019).” It’s a high dynamic range (HDR) single photo, frozen in time, of her father’s kitchen – its cupboards, countertops, and floor – in a house he built from the ground up. In a little white card, Mahaffy writes: “He ended up in rehab for an extended amount of time after falling ill taking care of 38 cats. His companions had to fend for themselves.”
Beyond those pieces, more bodies of work feature excavated artifacts from two interconnected generations of Mahaffy’s family: The two generations, of course, are her grandfather and father.
Her grandfather was a Presbyterian minister and a mineral collector. He kept meticulous journals which she referenced in her artist’s reception – in particular, what he wrote in red ink, such as the day Mahaffy’s parents separated. The red cursive handwriting take shape in the exhibit via red yarn-covered wire; the dozens of spines of his journals show up in a photo. He was a rockhound and mineral hunter, and Mahaffy created sculptures from his collection, which are captured in time through photo.
Her father worked with his hands. He was a builder: a woodworker, a carpenter, and a gunsmith. She writes: “His hunting vest contains handcrafted ammunition shells.” Handcrafted. This vest is framed for all to see at the exhibit. Adopted, “he memorialized his father by keeping his clothes, leaving signs of his vocation as a Presbyterian minister and his avocation as a mineral collector intact.” Mahaffy framed her grandfather’s tweed suit jacket that her father wore to his mother’s memorial service. She says that her father was taught to reuse or repurpose items. Mahaffy’s goal is to ultimately extend this project into a photo book that explores themes of “(dis)ease” in her father’s life.
In spirituality, the word "left" is associated with intuition, empathy, and emotional sensitivity. With what Mahaffy has left for those visiting her creation, she has fulfilled that and more. By sharing what had to be an excruciatingly exhausting experience for her – excavating items and artifacts of her family – she shows those who attend her exhibit the possibilities of what can come from a life’s worth of “stuff,” and the peace of mind and wellness it may bring to their souls.
“A Life Undone” by Ellen Mahaffy is on display now through Dec. 30 at the third floor gallery of L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library (400 Eau Claire St., Eau Claire).
