
Paw
<p>A photographer, filmmaker, and writer, Moyra Davey eschews grandiosity of scale or subject in order to train her eye on modest views of domestic life. To her, the quiet, overlooked corners of home hold great meaning, as spaces where neglected objects go through almost imperceptible cycles of change. Dust exerts a particular fascination on Davey—dead matter that circulates as a quotidian nuisance and can never be fully eradicated. Here, Davey used a narrow depth of field to render only a sliver of a dog’s paw in sharp focus, drawing even closer attention to the tangle of dust and human hair trapped underneath the dog’s claws. Dust has accumulated slowly, undetected, and in this moment is suddenly transported into view by the movement of everyday life.</p>
Catalogue
- Year
- 2003
- Medium
- Chromogenic print
- Dimensions
- Image: 48.4 × 38.3 cm (19 1/16 × 15 1/8 in.); Paper: 61 × 50.7 cm (24 1/16 × 20 in.)
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Artist
- Moyra Davey
Artist

Photography
Moyra Davey is a Canadian artist working primarily in photography, film, and text-based installation. Her practice assembles fragments of domestic life, archive material, and theoretical writing into layered compositions that interrogate memory, family, and the politics of representation. Working since the 1980s, she has developed a distinctive approach that treats the photograph as a document subject to reinterpretation and collage rather than as a fixed image.
Full artist profile →More
More by Moyra Davey
Subway Writers II
2011 · Chromogenic prints (25), tape, postage, and ink
Les Goddesses
2011 · HD video, sound; 60 min.
The Coffee Shop, The Library
2011 · Chromogenic prints
Receiver
2003 · Chromogenic print
Yma
1999 · Chromogenic print
Glass
1999 · Chromogenic print
Record
Verified by WattsOS- Artist
- Moyra Davey
- Year
- 2003
- Medium
- Chromogenic print
- Dimensions
- Image: 48.4 × 38.3 cm (19 1/16 × 15 1/8 in.); Paper: 61 × 50.7 cm (24 1/16 × 20 in.)
- Watts ID
- WW-2003-097212
Source
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Source
- aic
- Reference
- View at source
- Status
- verified





