Reviews

Digital City New York: Museums and Arts June 3, 1998

Described as a "living museum" by its creators, Merry Conway and Noni Pratt, A Woman's Work is Never Done re-examines women's roles in turn-of-the-millennium America. It is both a collection of letters, photographs, and "objets d'womanhood" -- from clotheslines to cake recipes -- and a series of performances about the public and private aspects of women's lives. Don't miss the pillow-fluffing performance, the stern lecture on how to make a good chocolate mouse, or the other ironic vignettes.

from Our Work Is Never Done New York Post May 26, 1998 by Elizabeth Cohen

Crumpled grocery lists, a canister of old face powder from a deceased mother's vanity, a silk wedding dress with a beverage stain running down the front -- these items would be garbage to some people, memorabilia to others, but for New Yorkers Noni Pratt and Merry Conway, the heaps of detritus -- combined with 11 actors, three musicians and a giant, empty, industrial space in TriBeCa-- are the stuff their artistic dreams are made of. “Too much of women's work has been invisible.” asserts Conway, explaining the theme. Not after this installation, it won’t be. For the next five weeks this spring they will train a spotlight on these “invisible activities” which are represented by the objects and stories they have choreographed together. Installations, a form of art popularized in the 1980s “can be very superficial,” says art critic Ann Wilson Lloyd. “But the work of Conway & Pratt embeds narrative in a site in a very deep and personal way. It reads as absolutely authentic.” What is remarkable, Lloyd points out, is the way they allow the public to participate in their creations by bringing in materials they incorporate in the work. Conway & Pratt’s work, a sort of archeology of the female psyche, is also big time art world fare. Like the temporary fabric curtains and wrapped structures of the artist Christo, it can only be viewed for a short while, but the recognition from their peers and the rave reviews have been lasting. “Noni and Merry approach their work from an interdisciplinary artistic perspective, incorporating text, movement, dance, and music.” points out Irene Mecchi, co-author of “The Lion King” and a Pratt and Conway fan. “I don’t know anything else like it right now.”