Elizabeth Duffy

Elizabeth Duffy

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  • 50 States Wallpapers, Textiles and Installations
  • Maximum Security
    • Security Envelope Projects
      • Neo, at the Milwaukee Art Museum
      • Apartment 2B, at DM Contemporary, NYC
      • Overlander, Hamilton Gallery, Newport, RI
      • Westbeth North Light, Westbeth Gallery, NYC
      • See Through
      • Prolonged Exposure and Repetition Delirium
      • Twin Lens Reflex, Governor's Island, NY
      • Day Job, The Drawing Center, NYC
      • Tobey Street, Providence, RI
      • Security Envelope Quilts and Drawings
      • Security Envelope Objects and Installations
      • Security Envelope Icebergs
      • Penumbra
    • Maximum Security: Quilts and Textiles
  • Insidious Objects
  • A Series of Minor Miracles
  • First Steps: The Moon Belongs to Us, An installation for the Rhode Island State House, curated by Judith Tolnick Champa
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  • Curatorial: Dead Ringer at the Bristol Art Museum, RI, June/July 2019
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Visibility is a Trap
screen printed toile wallpaper and textile with images of RI ACI, bird cage, lamp with 19th century print of dueling birds and braided rug
8’ x 6’ x 5’
The door of the bird cage is made in the shape of Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon, a late 18th century prison plan that was circular in shape and had a central watchtower. I use repeating circular patterns throughout this installation, including in the braided rug, a sign of home and hearth and also of women’s work. The dueling birds, cage and toile entangled with barbed wire reveal power structures present in everyday life and suggest that even in domestic space feelings of unease and entrapment are ever-present patterns of behavior.


All images copyright of Elizabeth Duffy, 1998-2020

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