LUMEN SARCOPHAGUS//

SLIDE LIFE Premire in Brooklyn + Beacon, Jan. 5 & 6

2012-01-03T01:07:00.000-05:00

SLIDE LIFE from Mollie McKinley on Vimeo.

Thursday, Jan. 5 :Vaudeville Park, Bushwick, BK///////////////////////////////////////Friday, Jan. 6 :The Coffee Shoppe, Beacon, NY/////////////////////////////////////////The HigLife plays live, and we screen the SLIDE LIFE music video I wrote, directed and shot for Jason Ajemian. Come party with us!

THE PRIESTESS conducts an alchemical fire ritual// MANIFESTING DESIRE

2011-12-21T17:25:00.000-05:00

Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011. Beacon, New York, 6:00PM. The darkest day of the year giving way to the light of FIRE. You'll find us in between Tallix and the Roundhouse, near the waterfall, on the creek. (Main Street.) I'll be helping you manifest your desires for the new year ahead. Bring your intentions.

(Extra points if you come and can name the occult significance of the above fire rituals!)

GEOFFREY PUGEN, FRANK POLLARD, SARAH MOSK, LEGACY RUSSELL, NICA ROSS, JOSEPHINE SHOKRIAN & MOLLIE McKINLEY.

2011-12-06T17:05:00.001-05:00

A little shout out from my Chicago friends at Make-Space.net

LARGE FORMAT EXISTENTIAL MARINA

2011-11-30T00:53:00.001-05:00

AARON FINBLOOM + ADRIANA DISMAN IN "EXISTENTIAL MARINA"

4X5 documentation of EXISTENTIAL MARINA. Freshly scanned. (There is more...they'll make their way to the website soon.) After scanning these, as I was walking out of the darkroom in Chelsea, a dude carrying a huge, weathered orange life-saver walked by me. It was wrapped up in sea-worthy ropes and was slung over his shoulder. Mysticism meeting existentialism is SO REAL. These are gonna be BIG prints.

"THE TRANSCENDENT BODY+OTHER GEOMETRIES:" DEC. 9, 2011, BEACON, NY

2011-11-16T17:09:00.001-05:00

THE ARTIST STATEMENT PICTURE SHOW #2
CURATED BY MOLLIE McKINLEY
////////

TOP: GEOFFREY PUGEN'S "BRIDGE KIDS" BOTTOM FROM LEFT: LEGACY RUSSELL'S "FIRST KISS/LAST DANCE"; FRANK POLLARD'S "AGENCY MENTAL DEFENSE WEAPONS"

Another Perspective on Boats

2011-11-12T16:34:00.001-05:00

If you've been following my work, you know how I truly love boats, in all of their manifestations and metaphors; so, I'm fairly sure you will understand my deep love for this Miami Vice scene. Thank you for existing, Don Johnson.

(And a shout out to my childhood neighbor, John Schulian, who was a writer for many Miami Vice episodes. We used to water his 80's ferns for him when he was out of town on set or doing whatever badass things a Miami Vice writer would do.)

Intimacy Versus Spectacle in Performance

2011-11-11T15:08:00.001-05:00

Today's meditation: are they Mutually Exclusive? A perfect and cutting meta-example from Buñel's masterpiece, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.

What is the difference between intimacy in a live performance versus on screen? How does the audience or camera engage with the intimacy of the performers/performance? Can a performance be both a spectacle and intimate?

Related art news topic today: in a formal letter to MOCA director Jeffrey Dietch, and released to the public via Art+Auction's gossip section as well as Artinfo, Yvonne Rainer calls out Marina Abramovich and the LA MOCA on a rather exploitative and perhaps sadistic "performance" which will occur over the course of the annual museum gala. During the gala and formal dinner, performers will lie naked on tables, with plastic skeletons atop them; there will also be performers kneeling on rotating lazy susans placed underneath each dinner table, with the performer's head emerging from the center of the table, enacting continuous yet disengaged eye contact with the patrons seated there. From Artinfo:

[The performance] involves installing performers under gala tables, turning them into disembodied rotating heads for three-hour-long stretches over a period of two days. The performers would be paid a paltry $150 for their troubles..."

Not intended as an act of tongue-in-cheek institutional critique, nor as an anti-fascist political agenda (Rainer brings up Pasolini's film, Salo, in this letter), I myself cannot help but think of Fellinni's Satyricon in regards to the context of these exploited young performers amidst wealthy patrons decked out in diamonds, gowns, and tuxedos. In fact, there are numerous fascist/anti-empire/class-critique art films that have created monstrous formal dinner scenes with exploitative flavor such as the spectacle crafted by Abramovic—with Salo, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Caligula, and Satyricon coming to mind first. Its an entire sub-genre!

In an unreferenced and anonymous email correspondence cited in an Artinfo article today, one of the performers had this to say: “Of course we were warned that we will not be able to leave to pee, etc. That diners may try to feed us, give us drinks, fondle us under the table, etc., but will be warned not to." Wealth, spectacle, and art continue to have a perverse and deep connection in our society; the fact that celebrity artists like Abramavic are idolized by younger artists and the higher ups in the art world alike, while twentysomethings choose instead to protest the more obvious corruption of Wall Street instead, just baffles me. As Rainer states in her letter to Jeffrey Dietch:

"[The performers'] desperate voluntarism says something about the generally exploitative conditions of the art world such that people are willing to become victims of a celebrity artist in the hopes of somehow breaking into the show biz themselves. And at sub-minimal wages for the performers, the event verges on economic exploitation and criminality."

A very ripe controversy, indeed, and one that helped me to realize my own limitations regarding spectacle in performance. One of the reasons why my own performances, such as the recent "Sun Threshold/Fire Magic," are presented as videos rather than live works, is because I believe that the intimate action would be interrupted or corrupted by the presence of an audience. These intimate interactions become "other" under the gawking gaze of an audience, a spectacle wherein they are not intended to be so. Exposed, public spaces do not necessarily foster/engender deep and intimate conversation, although it would be interesting for an artist to explore this rift and challenge the traditional environments that support intimate communication, such as bedrooms, couches by cozy fireplaces, private meeting rooms, quiet and dimly lit restaraunts, so forth. (I can imagine a series of performances where intense intimacy is introduced into clumsy public spaces like the streets of New York, sports stadiums, a TGIFridays.)

It is my belief that my performers' and my own subtle movements, interactions, and presence within scenes are best extracted within a closed set, where they/we feel the privacy to focus, relax, and let go—the privacy to take the performance wherever it needs to go, uninhibited by the gaze of spectacle-hungry strangers. My work is not about addressing the relationship between audience and performer. In this regard, although the works are largely improvisational and non-scripted, they really share more with traditional filmmaking than with performance art.

In this regard, I'm grateful for both Abramovic and Rainer's resussitation of a public dialogue regarding spectacle. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must go read some Guy Debord.

NEW WEBSITE DESIGN

2011-11-10T17:28:00.001-05:00

www.molliemckinley.com

For the pleasure of your eyeballs, brain, and spirit, I've redesigned my portfolio website. Check out my recent video/performance/photo/installation artworks.

(Some of my older films have been retired to the archives, like Birthday Cake for Horsemen and All Ye Merry Pilgrims. They are still available for screening, just drop me an email.)

ACTUAL PHONE CALL

2011-11-09T21:32:00.002-05:00

If you invite me over and your television is playing the Lifetime channel in the background, you better believe I will be photographing the dramatic re-enactments with my phone instead of talking to you. Be forewarned. As passé as his crocheted primary color sofa cover and nerd glasses may be, it brought me great pleasure to document his tearful ACTUAL PHONE CALL.

Capitalism Video Take One: Financial Pillow Talk with Mollie

2011-11-08T15:26:00.000-05:00

Stay tuned for a party promo video wherein I read you excerpts from 365 Ways To Become A Millionare. A collab with my dear friend, filmmaker/writer and politico Emily Dische-Becker. Shot in Rhinebeck, New York.

Occult Season Part I: The Dunwich Horror

2011-10-20T19:47:00.002-04:00

"Those figures are so silent andfurtive that one feels somehow confronted by forbidden things, with which it would be betterto have nothing to do. When a rise in the road brings the mountains in view above the deep woods,the feeling of strange uneasiness is increased. The summits are too rounded and symmetricalto give a sense of comfort and naturalness, and sometimes the sky silhouettes with especialclearness the queer circles of tall stone pillars with which most of them are crowned.

Gorges and ravines of problematical depth intersect the way, and the crudewooden bridges always seem of dubious safety. When the road dips again there are stretches ofmarshland that one instinctively dislikes, and indeed almost fears at evening when unseen whippoorwillschatter and the fireflies come out in abnormal profusion to dance to the raucous, creepily insistentrhythms of stridently piping bull-frogs."

H.P. Lovecraft, The Dunwich Horror

My understanding of that uncanny feeling in Cape Cod during the season of the Dead is shared at least by H.P. Lovecraft, and also by Dean Stockwell in the 1970 film after the short story (in one of his only leading roles ever.) Magnificent. Let's all go haunt a Puritan graveyard!

Primitivist, ancestral performance and a Darwinian theory of beauty

2011-10-11T15:54:00.000-04:00

A meditation on the human mind's reaction to beauty led me to a provocative and relevant TED lecture given by the late philosopher Denis Dutton. Mr. Dutton links Darwinian survivalist behavior to the creation of the earliest art objects, which he notes as being the Acheulean hand axes, created between 50,000 and 100,000 years before language. (About two and a half million years ago.) The creation of these objects, he states, was not for butchering meat nor for another practical use; none of these numerous objects found in Africa have their points worn down, and their great number refutes the theory of their use as a butchering tool. Rather, these objects were created by our ancestors for pure aesthetic purposes. Perhaps, he states, these first works of art were created as a way to attract mates: master-crafted hand axe connotated planning ability, motor control, and intelligence of the creator. Over time, the creators of these objects were given higher social status and a reproductive advantage over the "less capable."

This theory, to me, proves that art is crucial in the continuing evolution of humanity. Perhaps art still relates to the capable alpha-human attracting a mate through the display of intelligence, skill, and other traits linked to ancestral survivalism. But moreover, the possibility of union between that deeper base instinct and our higher modes of conscious behavior (advanced emotional intelligence) opens up wide and brilliant possibilities for further leaps in collective consciousness.

"One fundamental trait of the ancestral personality persist in our aesthetic cravings: the beauty we find in skilled performances...We find beauty in something done well. Is beauty in the eye of the beholder? No, its deep in our minds, its a gift handed down from the intelligent skills and rich emotional lives of our most ancient ancestors. Our powerful reaction to images, to the expression of emotion in art, to the beauty of music, to the night sky, will be with us and our decendants for as long as the human race exists."

—Dennis Dutton, TED Talk 2010

WATCH SUN THRESHOLD.

2011-09-27T12:59:00.000-04:00

A site specific performance created and directed by Mollie McKinley. Starring McKinley and guest performer Ben Carver. Shot at the Harold Arts in Chersterhill, Ohio, July 2011. "Fever" by Peggy Lee remixed by McKinley. Excerpt from a two and a half hour performance of which forty minutes were captured in HD; the final edited video will be approximately 15 minutes in length.

three days until we go

2011-09-21T00:49:00.000-04:00

BEACON OPEN STUDIOS September 24+25

2011-09-14T17:21:00.001-04:00

Video installation, photographs, and a performance in a 17 foot box truck at Beacon Open Studios!!

Balloons, fishing nets, ropes, and life vests...

Come see what I've been up to this summer at the School of Making Thinking and the Harold Arts as an artist in residence. Preview works from my current ongoing series, PRIESTESS.

On Sunday, Sept. 25, at 2pm, I will be giving an interactive performance: an amended version of my "Fear+Failure Party" video performance. Come into the truck and confess your fears and failures to me as your Priestess of Liminality, and be absolved.

Other artists will have installations in box trucks, too: its called Truck City and its located outside of Spire Studios at 45 Beekman Street, Beacon, New York.

See you there!

The Warrior Children

2011-09-10T18:01:00.000-04:00

Found on a seat on the El in Chicago on route to a Bahai temple...apropos of Sun Threshold/Fire Magic

EXISTENTIAL MARINA screening at FADO Performance Art Centre, Toronto, August 28

2011-08-17T15:26:00.002-04:00

ADRIANA DISMAN + AARON FINBLOOM IN "EXISTENTIAL MARINA"

A selection from my new EXISTENTIAL MARINA video will be screening at this event. If you are around the Gibraltar Islands in Toronto next weekend, please do check it out! This video is a critical work in my recent body work exploring the intersection of existential philosophy and mysticism, entitled PRIESTESS.

_______________________________________

FADO Performance Art Centre presents: SPANE
Screening of Performance Art in the Natural Environment  

Curator:
Johannes Zits

Artscape Gibraltar Point is a 20 minute walk east from either Hanlan’s Point or the Centre Island ferry docks. For the complete Toronto Ferry Schedule, see: www.toronto.ca/parks/island/ferry-schedule.htm 

From an overwhelming response to our request for works of performance for the camera, curator Johannes Zits has pulled together a program of 15 intriguing, provocative video works. As the title suggests, the works feature live-art or performance art where the performer(s) is engaged in or working with an uncultivated, rustic, rural or undomesticated surrounding. SPANE is presented to coincide with the final day of an Intensive Performance Art Workshop conducted at Gilbraltar Point by senior Québec artist Sylvie Tourangeau. Before the screening, we invite you to join us at Gibraltar Point to watch performances created by Tourangeau’s workshop participants.

Spend the day on the island!
Performances @ 4pm 
Screening @ 7:30pm (approximately 2 hours)
All ages & licensed cash bar

ARTISTS:
Ho Tam
Aimee Dawn Robinson 
Geoffrey Pugen 
Michelle Browne 
Rachel Echenberg 
Mollie McKinley 
Anthony Privitera
Linda Duvall 
Lezli Rubin-Kunda
Matthew Lovett
Isavan Kantor 
Mark Prier
Rachelle Beaudoin 
Anya Liftig 
Leah Dexter  

ARTSCAPE  is a not-for-profit organization that makes space for creativity and transforms communities. Artscape Gibraltar Point is located on Lakeshore Avenue, a 20 minute walk east from either Hanlan’s Point or the Centre Island ferry docks. Thanks to Artscape Gibraltar Point Manager Lisa Cristinzo.
www.torontoartscape.on.ca 

New Video Work : SUN THRESHOLD/FIRE MAGIC

2011-08-15T16:32:00.001-04:00

This July I had the pleasure of visiting my friends at the Harold Arts in Chersterhill, Ohio, as a returning artist in residence.

In continuing with my new body of video/performance/installation work of the past several months, entitled PRIESTESS, a new work arose, "SUN THRESHOLD/FIRE MAGIC." Based on the symbolism of the Sun card of the Tarot, and my continuing exploration of the intersection of existentialism and mysticism, the work is entirely improvisational (relaying on personal freedom and intuition for action and movement within the given parameters of a site-specific installation). My performance partner in SUN THRESHOLD is Chicago musician, and Harold Arts recording engineer, Ben Carver.

Feminist existentialism, shamanism, Eros, and the mythology of the sun all play key roles in the dynamics in this work; the materials in the installation space both directly correspond to the Sun card (mound of earth, horse skull, the male and female in symmetry with the sun ascending above them), as well as provide non-sequitur playfulness (balloons, ropes, nets).

The performance begins by ceremonially lighting a fire within the upturned horse skull, which rests atop a pile of earth between us. The only action that must be completed is to paint the upper portions of the others' face with red (male) and white (female) paint. The rest of the improvisational performance stems from these actions.

The performance takes place in a deer blind used for hunting within a remote field; we face out of the open side of the blind (contrary to how the structure's traditional use). The symbolism of visibility rather than invisibility is essential in this choice, also reflecting the unveiled nature of the sun’s light upon objects and as a metaphor for openness between the male and female.

Selections from the video will be shown at Beacon Open Studios September 25-26, in a site specific installation in a box truck showing a preview of the PRIESTESS body of work.

Existential Marina at Night.

2011-07-13T17:07:00.000-04:00

(Many thanks to poet/photographer Abraham Nowitz for his assistance with these images of my marina under the full moon.)

FEAR + FAILURE PARTY by MOLLIE MCKINLEY

2011-06-29T12:56:00.002-04:00

A group of nine guests are each given party hats; lit torches, representing the four cardinal directions, are given to four of these guests. Dressed in black, they are invited to the edge of the forest, where they may confess their fears and failures to the earth, either silently or aloud. The party ritual begins at midnight, on June 15, 2011, a day which marks a full moon eclipse. A Priestess, dressed in white, sits in a ceremonial area, named the Existential Marina. Her breasts are the Teats of Being and Nothingess, one black and one white. She does not speak except to whisper to the guests a single sentence, who arrive one by one to sit with her in a rowboat filled with brightly colored balloons.

This ritual space is a blue and silver boat in a patch of ferns at the edge of a forest in the Catskills. A dead log moors the boat with a long, thick rope. A huge, ancient, tugboat rope, pulled from the banks of the Hudson River, is wrapped around another nearby dead tree. Other pieces of scavenged jetsam and flotsam help create the feel of a displaced marina: nets, aged buoys, and sun-bleached orange life vests. Nearly all of which were washed ashore from the Hudson River in Beacon, New York and relocated to the site.

A small hole is dug on one side of the boat. A fireplace set with brass duck-heads are placed next to it. Prior to the ceremony, a fire has been lit and extinguished within it. A huge fishing net pours from the inside of the boat, out and over to cover the nearby ferns. The Priestess wears part the fishing net as a veil.

This event was created and directed by Mollie McKinley at the School of Making Thinking in DeLancey, New York.

Director of Photography was Josephine Decker.

The party-goers and ritual participants are the first residents of the School of Making Thinking.

This artwork and its video representation are copyright of Fur + Bones Productions 2011.

The End of SMT and the Experience of the Liminal

2011-06-22T15:30:00.000-04:00

FEAR AND FAILURE PARTY

THE TEAT OF BEING AND NOTHINGNESS

THE EXISTENTIAL MARINA

The experience of being a resident at the School of Making Thinking was astounding. After creating an existential marina, screening LOVEFISH deep in the night woods (a sheet pulled taught and nailed to two trees), becoming a High Priestess of Liminal Space, and suckling from the black and white teats of Being and Nothingness, I have to say that the intersection of mystical experience and existentialism gives rise to something altogether Liminal, and deeply powerful.

Several videos were created during the experience; the first starred Toronto performance artist Adriana Disman and New York philosopher (and SMT director) Aaron Finbloom (daytime photographs above). The second was a Fear and Failure Party held under the full moon eclipse at midnight, wherein I invited party-hat clad co-residents to confess/give up their fears and failures. I acted as mediator, silent witness, advocate, and facilitator for the process, which took place in the Marina which I created. Ceremony, celebration, and somber reflection as the mists of the Catskills crept towards us, and the light of the torches dwindled to reveal the blue night as the candy colored balloons scattered around the site glistened with night dew.

The School of Making Thinking

2011-06-08T19:25:00.000-04:00

I've arrived back at the utopic SMT in the Catskills, where the philosophical battle between existentialism and mysticism is raging (at least in my project.) So far I have built a marina as a set for the subsequent video piece, and I will be workshopping the action with several of the performers and philosophers here.

The group of us, about ten artists/filmmakers/writers/philosophers, give or take some flux, made a collective poem last weekend using Surrealist Parlour techniques. Here is the result, giving an idea of the flavour of our communal consciousness up here.

Avalanche in the Blood

If you stay forever,
then forces of nature will gather toothpicks.

If we burn the mattress at the party’s end,
then we will know that our bond extends into taking too much care of others, Josephine.

If Adriana dreams about whores and drug dealers tonight,
we would, we would, we would really really know it.

If the apocalypse were a revealing of something and it occurred tonight,
She gonna fuck you right back. Hard.

If you fuck that bitch,
Everything would stop—an ancient machine without oil.

If neckties could keep people from telling lies,
Then we’ll have to draw the blinds.

If the moon shines more brightly than your eyes,
Then what if he flew into a window?

If my father was a silent bird,
Then BLAH BLAH BLAH.

If you could sleep me down,
Then we would bow-chicka-bow in the boat on the SMT Marina.

If you and I fell in love,
Then I am getting the fuck out of here.

If you stay forever,
Then we would bow-chicka-bow in the boat on the SMT Marina.

JEAN-PAUL SARTRE VS. WM. BLAKE IN THE MYTHOLOGIES OF THE APOCALYPTIC

2011-05-22T18:43:00.001-04:00

This June I am heading up to the Catskills to participate in an experimental residency/art school, called The School of Making Thinking. Initiated by three New York City-based young philosophers and artists, the program embraces a rigorous cross-pollination between philosophical thinking and the making of art objects.

While there for my two week stay, I will be working on a film/video project entitled JEAN-PAUL SARTRE VS. WM. BLAKE IN THE MYTHOLOGIES OF THE APOCALYPTIC.

Taking texts from Sartre’s Being and Nothingness and Blake’s Four Zoas, I will investigate ideas of apocalypse (macro, micro, “God”-centric, environmental, psychic, psychological) and create performative videos and films derived from them, taking into special consideration the entymology of the word, the Greek “apokaluptein,” which means to uncover or reveal.

Materials for the sets and costumes so far range from fire paste to salvaged industrial fishing nets to blonde beehive wigs. The actions of the works will be determined by a collaborative exploration of the ideas behind the texts, and will likely spill over into the realms of installation and sculpture.

www.theschoolofmakingthinking.com

http://theschoolofmakingthinking.com/making/session-a

LOVEFISH New York Premeire @Anthology Film Archives, June 7

2011-05-03T19:22:00.003-04:00

I'm thrilled to announce that my short film, LOVEFISH, will make its New York City premiere as an official selection of the New Filmmakers Summer '11 series at Anthology Film Archives!

32 2nd Avenue, NYC, in the Lower East Side.

The screening is Tuesday, June 7 at 7:30PM. There are no advance tickets, so please line up early to guarantee a seat for this awesome evening of short film!!
___________________

In related news, the Filmmakers Coop/New American Cinema Group will house LOVEFISH in their incredible collection of over 5,000 films and videos, alongside greats such as Stan Brackage, Carolee Schneeman, Ken Jacobs, and Jonas Mekas. Distribution and bookings of the film will be available to curators, film programmers, and individuals through the FMC from here on out!

Both Anthology and the Coop have a deeply respected, long standing tradition of showing the best in independent, experimental, and avant-garde cinema. I'm bowled over to work with both of these institutions, and I hope you'll join me at the premiere to celebrate!

Happy Spring, Amerika.

2011-03-30T18:16:00.001-04:00

Teach 4 Amerika from Bruce High Quality Foundation on Vimeo.

Delicious video documentation of my friends the BHFQ making a limo into a punk schoolbus. They're taking it across the country on an art-institutional-reform (/rejection?) campaign. If watching this doesn't make you happy to be alive, I don't know what will.

Two New McKinley Curatorial Projects: ASPS and INCINERATE Film Series

2011-03-28T00:07:00.008-04:00

I.
This summer I will be curating two film programs in Beacon, New York. The first is a continuation of artist and independent curator Greg Slick's program, "The Artist Statement Picture Show." Look forward to a summer program (*pushed back from its original time slot in May) I'm curating entitled THE TRANSCENDENT BODY, featuring short works by international, national, and local filmmakers & video artists who are using moving images to explore and transcend the limitations of the human body.

From imaginary dance parties (fun!) to brain surgery (heavy!) the results are deep, diverse, and very exciting. The screening will be followed by a talk by filmmaker John Dubberstein, who will be ending the program with a hidden treasure of American avant-garde cinema: his seminal Brain Surgery film from 1976, which has not screened publicly in many years. This summer ASPS location is TBD; look out for a press release with the final details in the coming weeks.

May 2011 ASPS: Katherine Bauer's "Chrystallus"

May 2011 ASPS: Two stills from Nica Ross' "Whoamone Rising"

II.
Additionally, this summer I will be curating a screening at the Howland Cultural Center I've created, called INCINERATE. The screening will showcase new films by new directors. I'm opening it up to submissions, without limitation to genre or length (e.g. narrative, exprimental, etc). The submission is open to all filmmakers regardless of age, locale, and distribution status of their work, although the idea is to show high quality work from newer directors that might get overlooked in the mainstream, or may not have distribution yet. The screening will be held in August.

To submit, send a trailer or link of your film to incineratefilmseries@gmail.com.

If you don't have a copy online for preview, feel free to inquire about sending a hard copy in the mail.

Oh, and the red triangle that is the new INCINERATE emblem is the alchemical symbol for fire.

See you in the dark, my lovelies.

"Herb & Dorothy": Screening and Benefit at the Dia: Beacon Museum March 12

2011-03-08T23:20:00.000-05:00

My friend David Madzjlin is a film composer who scored the sound for the multi-award winning 2009 documentary, Herb & Dorothy. He's bringing the film to Beacon this weekend to screen at the Dia as part of a local fundraiser.

"What do you do when you collect local art for fun, and later learn your collection is priceless? FIND OUT MARCH 12!

"Herb and Dorothy" is a multi-award-winning documentary about Herb and Dorothy Vogel - a postal worker and a librarian, who with very modest means, managed to build one of the most important contemporary art collections in history. Several of the artists Herb and Dorothy collected are housed or have been featured at the Dia:Beacon museum.

Screening will be followed by a panel discussion on the Art of Collecting Art featuring the filmmakers, Herb and Dorothy Vogel, artist Charles Clough, and Jack Cowart, Executive Director of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation."

Get tickets for the film screening, and a panel at the Dia:Beacon Museum with Herb & Dorothy in person!

Eye candy for the Ides of March

2011-03-08T23:12:00.006-05:00

A few recent unpublished 4x5 photographs to help wake your eyes up as spring approaches...all taken from the old high school, also known as Beacon Studios, where I have also shot video and had open studio screenings. I photographed these on the full moon last October 2010, at midnight.

Scratches all over an abandoned 1970's cafeteria...heiroglyphics on the bulletin board, but no bulletins this year...the abstract geometries of refuse laid to waste. School's out. For. Ever.

Lovefish poster 2.0 //

2011-01-15T00:10:00.002-05:00

Its been a long and amazing process, and the film is now done!

I will be posting updates on the blog about screening dates as they

become solidified...stay tuned, New York, for spring and

summer screenings.

LOVEFISH @School of Jellyfish

2010-12-12T00:36:00.002-05:00

The early December pre-screening at Beacon's School of Jellyfish was wonderful, thank you to Lilly Zand as well as curator Greg Slick! Stay tuned for information about forthcoming screenings and the 2011 premiere of the film en complete with an original score.

The Cove

2010-12-05T20:03:00.009-05:00

"The Cove" 2010

Digital C-Print Editions are limited to 50 of each size; available as 11"x14" and 20"x 24". Each is signed and numbered on the back in archival ink; professionally printed on matte digital Kodak paper. Email hello@molliemckinley.com to order.

First review for Lovefish on "The Artpoint"

2010-12-01T13:58:00.000-05:00

New York City art critic & writer Phillip F. Clark reviewed my film, Lovefish, on his fabulous blog, "The Artpoint," as part of the films showing at the Artist Statement Picture Show (this Saturday, at School of Jellyfish in Beacon, 6pm-8pm.):

Lovefish, Mollie McKinley, 2010, color 16mm film transferred to DVD, 6:00 min. Starring Richard Saudek and Ariel Sims. This strange and haunting film is inspired by dreams and their Jungian symbols, as well as by Diana, the virgin huntress of Greco-Roman mythology. McKinley deftly tugs on our ancestral strings with a set of surreal imagery that hovers somewhere between art performance and ancient ritual. By showing us an interpretation of who we were, McKinley offers an insight into what we’ve become. A multimedia artist based in New York City and the Hudson Valley, McKinley has received critical acclaim nationally and abroad for her films, photography, and installations.

P.S.1 MOMA Studio Visit

2010-11-27T19:21:00.001-05:00

My P.S.1 MOMA virtual studio visit is viewable at http://ps1.org/studio-visit/artist/mollie-mckinley. !

For Immediate Release: Film Screening in Beacon, Saturday, Dec. 4

2010-11-07T12:40:00.000-05:00

The Artist’s Statement Picture Show at School of Jellyfish

Saturday December 4, 2010, 6 to 8 pm

The Artist’s Statement Picture Show and School of Jellyfish are proud to present a program of recent short film and video by a selection of emerging and established artists. The work features a range of content and categories, including animation, formal documentation, experimental narrative, non-narrative, and abstraction. The Artist’s Statement Picture Show is a new art film and video initiative that showcases work by local, national, and international artists. This first installment of The Artist’s Statement Picture Show is curated by Greg Slick.

About the artists:

Marko Mäetamm’s videos provide a voyeuristic look at a domestic life infused with the strange and absurd. Often dealing with taboo subjects, he ultimately locates the universal within the personal. A multimedia artist based in Tallinn, Estonia, Mäetamm shows his work internationally, and has represented his country, Estonia, twice in the Venice Biennale.

Mollie McKinley’s films and videos confront great metaphysical dilemmas, and tend to touch on primal fears and myths, while providing an exhilarating thread of hope. A multimedia artist based in New York City and the Hudson Valley, McKinley has received critical acclaim nationally and abroad for her films, photography, and installations.

Susan Osberg is an interdisciplinary dance performance artist: choreographer/dancer/ teacher/writer. As artistic director of her company—Workwith Dancers Company—she works experimentally and collaboratively with new music and visual artists. Osberg is also a founding member of Dance Across Borders. She lives in Beacon, NY.

Jaanika Peerna works at the crossroads of digital and traditional media, often dealing with the themes of water, simplicity and silence using drawing, video, and installations. In her video work, she records essential moments and movements in carefully chosen ordinary phenomena. Peerna shows her work in New York and internationally. She is based in Cold Spring, NY and Tallinn, Estonia.

Kelly Shimoda uses photography and video to investigate human behavior and communication. Her video work thoughtfully captures how people interact with each other and their surroundings through the documentation of telling details and intimate moments. Shimoda is based in Beacon, NY.

Greg Slick is a multimedia artist and independent curator based in Beacon, NY. His paintings, photography, and sculpture have been shown in New York, Europe, and Japan. His video work tends to explore ritualized movement, history (documented and imagined), and fractured narratives that expose mysteries embedded in the ordinary.

August Ventimiglia’s work often utilizes formal themes of process and materiality to investigate cultural experiences. He relies on a wide variety of media, including wood, metal, chalk, charcoal, language, and video to implement his ideas. His work draws on the Post-Minimalist and Conceptual Art traditions, but also seeks to invest abstract forms with human social references. Ventimiglia is based in Wellesley, MA and Gorham, ME.

School of Jellyfish™

183 Main Street, Beacon, NY 12508

www.schoolofjellyfish.com 845.440.8017

Puritans in the Night Woods: stills from new video in progress

2010-10-18T10:58:00.000-04:00

Production stills from a new video piece I am working on. I've had the image of a young Puritan woman—standing in the Massachusetts woods at night—burned into my mind for several years. I finally found the right costume, and shot footage on location in Sandwich, Massachusetts. (And thanks to Sara Sylvester, whose technical assistance was key in making the shoot happen.) I'll let you all know when the video is completed!

One more month to see "Witchunt" in "Contemporary Art & Praxis" Exhibition @ The Dorsky Museum

2010-10-02T13:02:00.006-04:00

"Witch House" 30" x 40" C-Print

"The Pulpit" 24" x 20" C-Print

Five large-format photographs from my "Witchunt" series are still on view at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art in New Paltz, NY. The exhibition closes in a little over a month on November 14, so if you haven't made it up there yet, this is the best month to do it! What could be better than a day away from the city amidst autumn's crisp clarity and some serenely gothic art to match? New Paltz is easily accessible via I-87, about a 2 hour drive from NYC.

A brief essay on Nicolas Roeg's 1973 supernatural masterpeice, "Don't Look Now."

2010-10-01T16:47:00.003-04:00

Recently I watched "Don't Look Now" for the first time, and it has left a powerful impression on me. The film's particular power can only be likened to the feeling of watching David Lynch for the first time over ten years ago. In fact, the parallels between Lynchian visual language and this film are undenaible; I found a well-articulated review of the film on Netflix (where it seems film scholars get their rocks off after-hours writing reviews), which said thus:

""Don't Look Now" could almost serve as a template for the more secularized dread of Lynch's "Mulholland Drive." Roeg's Venice is a place beloved by Milton, where ancient demons take vengeance on those who meddle with their temples. Lynch's Hollywood is not altogether different, a place where diminutive producers in secluded rooms issue fiats that crush the dreams of actresses from small town Ontario...This is a film for people who believe that the greatest mysteries can only be hinted at. Primal fears aren't really conducive to tidy endings."

Indeed. Lynch learned something from Roeg in his carefully crafted sets of visual synchronicities and tight editing. Roeg's lesson here is that while we think we are linking synchronous pieces together, we are really being led by lights of the will-o-the-wisp to our own dark demise.

Lynch ultimately punishes the seekers of synchronicity and mystery as well (such as in the case of Agent Dale Cooper). What gives? Do the dark demons protecting the wilds of the universe want to be left to their privacy? Or are these male heroes—Donald Sutherland as John Baxter, Kyle McLaughlan as Dale Cooper in "Twin Peaks"—both attuned to the supernatural, cross a forbidden line between worlds and thus seal their fate? I cannot help but note that both of their demises revolve around seeking a woman of supernatural origins. Take that gender criticism where you will, and also realize the toll that the hero's demise takes on the human women in his life. A must-watch.

Thanks for coming to Beacon Open Studios !

2010-09-26T22:37:00.001-04:00

Thank you so much to everyone who came to open studios this weekend...it was wonderful sharing the work with you!

Sea Witch House-Boat installation photos now up on my website.

2010-09-22T12:24:00.000-04:00

@www.molliemckinley.com

(come see some of the Witch Boat artifacts at my open studio this weekend!)

Mollie@Beacon Open Studios: September 25-26

2010-09-10T17:00:00.005-04:00

"L O V E F I S H" 16mm film stills, 2010, digital c-prints

Mark your calendar to come visit my studio on the weekend of Sept. 25-26 in Beacon, NY!

I will be setting up an installation of my work at Bulldog Studios, 211 Fishkill Ave, Room 108 B. Its an amazing old classroom (near the boiler room! just follow the signs) so expect to see videos looping in huge cabinets, photo prints on the wall & for sale, and some amazing curiosities such as my collection of film props and costumes. I'll have my 4x5 camera and 16mm Bolex for visitors to check out, too.

There will be wine and classy snacks, of course.

The studio is an easy ride from Grand Central (Metro North; a ticket is 12 bucks and takes just over an hour, along the scenic Hudson River. Click for Schedule) A shuttle will be running all weekend from the train station to Main Street, and you can easily walk if the weather suits.

Artists all over town will have their studios open, and do make sure to check out the Dia:Beacon while you're here.

I'd love to meet new people who are interested in the work as well as welcome old friends. I hope to see you then!!

Salt, bones, & LOVEFISH

2010-08-22T22:27:00.003-04:00

Transferred 16mm to digital, courtesy of ColorLab NYC. Working on the final edit!

Re-opening of "Contemporary Art & Praxis" at Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, Friday, August 27, 5-7 pm.

2010-08-20T17:03:00.006-04:00

"Witchunt" installation view

Performance by Thomas Albrecht

Hudson Valley Artists 2010: Contemporary Art & Praxis re-opens for its fall run next Friday, August 27, from 5-7 pm. The show (which has five of my large format photographs in it) will be up until November 14.

Also opening that night at the museum:

5-7 pm: Opening reception for The Illustrious Mr. X: Museum Collection as Character Study and Thoughts of Home: Photographs from the Center for Photography at Woodstock Permanent Collection AND re-opening for Hudson Valley Artists 2010 and Andy Warhol: Private and Pubic in 151 Photographs
7-8 pm: Hudson Valley Artists 2010 artist performance by Cave Dogs at McKenna Theatre

Dreams in the Witch House(boat)

2010-07-19T21:01:00.004-04:00

My Sea Witch House installation is in this exhibition/happening...

_____________________

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Shake Outttttt 3: The Sea Giveth, The Sea Taketh Away
July 24, 2010
From noon until sundown
Marina 59
59‐14 Beach Channel Drive
Far Rockaway, New York

LOCAL ARTISTS AND BANDS TRANSFORM FAR ROCKAWAY MARINA DURING
SHAKE OUTTTTTT 3: THE SEA GIVETH, THE SEA TAKETH AWAY

July 12, 2010, New York, NY – This year marks the third installation of Shake Outttttt, an annual group show organized by local artists and curators in Far Rockaway, New York. Marina 59 owner Ari Zablozki is pleased to host this year’s event, Shake Outttttt 3: The Sea Giveth, The Sea Taketh Away, which will take place on Saturday, July 24. Curated by Olivia Wyatt, Jessica Shaefer, Shaun Kessler, and Patrick Walsh, it will be an all‐day event of art, music, performance and food at Marina 59, located on Jamaica Bay in Far Rockaway.

As part of the show, approximately thirty young New York‐based artists were asked to create site‐specific works within the marina. Some of the works include old, junked boats that are being painted and transformed into various art installations: among these, the boat Obsession will act as an instrument/recording studio for the band
Messages, and a houseboat is being transformed into a haunted house, another into a video projection room with upstairs ‘disco lounge.’ (The houseboats will eventually be renovated and turned into bed and breakfast accommodation at the marina). A live feed using a hydrophone will amplify the natural sounds of the bay. An interactive sound sculpture will be placed upon a floating dock; painted yoga mats will be available for use in conjunction with an original musical composition…and much, much more.
DJs Taka and Shay High will provide a soundtrack to the event during the day and around sunset there will be a live music performance by percussive post‐punk Brooklyn trio Lemonade. There will be five two‐person kayaks and five four‐person motorboats available for hourly rental. The marina has also placed a swimming dock in the middle
of the bay, so that as swimmers or boaters approach the dock, they will be able to experience floating sculptures along the way. Local favorites Rockaway Taco, Roberta’s Pizza, Veggie Island, and DiCosmo’s Italian Ices will provide food and refreshments for sale, with bar and alcohol on offer from Zablozki's Bar. Rockaway Ferry will
provide water taxi service to the event from Pier 11 at Wall Street in Manhattan at 11:45am as part of its regular route to Riis Park. Visitors can also take the A train to 60th Street in Far Rockaway.

articipating artists include: Rebecca Adorno, Sean Bolebruchs, Gabriel Buentello, The Cynthia Brothers, Elsa Brut de Renur, April Childers, Molly Dilworth, Sam Falls and Joe Zorilla, Ry Fyan, Ivy Haldeman, Bryan Harrington, Elizabeth Hart, Natalie Labriola, Andres Laracuente, Molly Lowe, Marwan Makki, Juliette Marchima, Robbie McDonald, Keegan McHargue, Mollie McKinley, Andy Meerow and Alexis Gideon, Daniel Oh, Maia Cruz Palileo, Todd Pistone, Jory Rabinovitz, Geoff Rawling, Ian Rosenberg and Matt Webster, Kant Smith, Sondra Sun‐Odeon, Robert Syracuse, Sam Tierney, Sean Townley, Siebren Versteeg, Skint, and Revel Woodard, among others.
•••
For more information on Shakeoutttttt 3: The Sea Giveth, The Sea Taketh Away, please contact Jessica Shaefer at jess.shaefer@gmail.com or 917.453.9348 or Olivia Wyatt at olivia.wyatt@gmail.com or 501.837.7375.

For more information on Marina 59, please contact Ari Zablozki at ari@marina59.com or 718.945.4500.

The Sea Giveth, the Sea Taketh Away: Dreams in the Witch House(boat)

2010-07-13T22:02:00.005-04:00

On Saturday, July 24, come to the Channel Beach Marina in Far Rockaway, Brooklyn, to view my installation of a witch house-boat (before photo above). Nests of seaweed, torches, bones, all aboard a decrepit 1950's houseboat. Exhibition produced by Jess Shaefer of Hendershot Gallery.

Ferries will be leaving from a TBD NYC location all that day to the show. Booze, boat rides, installation/performance art/sculpture. Stay tuned for more info my sea faring lovelies!!

Stills from June LOVEFISH shoot (Poisson l'amour)

2010-06-24T13:44:00.006-04:00

We borrowed a beautiful racing sailboat from local sailboat racer Aaron Pincus. The boat was moored at the Chelsea Yacht Club, and we left from there into the approaching dusk of the Hudson River. The film was shot on color 16mm, Bolex H-16, soon to be digitized and edited for its early fall debut. We arrived back at the Club tipsy, glowing, and greeted by twinkling lights and the Beach Boys playing over the PA. Couldn't have been more magical. A true study in the alchemy of relational aesthetics!

Ariel Sims stars as The Queen

Lovefish, continued.

2010-06-14T22:01:00.004-04:00

Stills from Roman Polanski's 1962 debut, "Knife in the Water."

I am thrilled that this week I will conclude shooting for Lovefish. The final scene takes place on a sailboat in the Hudson River.

"Witchunt" at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art

2010-05-17T12:58:00.009-04:00

Five of my "Witchunt" photographs will be included in this exhibition at the Dorsky Museum this summer and fall. Press release and curator's statement below.

Hudson Valley Artists 2010: Contemporary Art and Praxis

Curated by Thomas Collins

June 26 – November 14, 2010
Alice and Horace Chandler Gallery

“The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it.”
–Karl Marx, Theses on Feuerbach, 1845

Key philosophers from Plato and Aristotle to the Frankfurt School have elaborated the description of and advocated a special category of human action called “praxis.” In praxis, critical theory is wedded to practical activity to yield new cultural “products” ranging from speech to texts, objects, organizations, and environments. The resulting creative products are offered as a form of social activism seeking to improve, or propose a new solution to, an existing set of material, cultural, or social circumstances.

Contemporary progressive artists and artist collectives have gone beyond modern abstraction and postmodern investigations of representation to devise new artistic praxes that have real material implications. Drawing on sources as varied as social theory, genomics, psychoanalysis, environmental science, political philosophy, and cybernetics, they have worked locally, nationally, and internationally to place art at the service of the individual and society in an attempt to bring about social, political, and economic change.

Miseducation at Index Art Center film fest

2010-05-17T12:51:00.006-04:00

"Miseducation" was included in the short film fest "Filmideo" at Index Art Center in Newark, NJ. The video is now viewable online via Vimeo!

Press for the BRUCENNIAL 2010

2010-03-04T00:54:00.004-05:00

The New York Times

ArtForum

Art in America

RECESS Gallery Site

Brucennial 2010: Miseducation...(Horror & the Teenage Girl)

2010-02-20T14:34:00.009-05:00

When I was asked to participate in the Bruce High Quality Foundation's group show this winter, themed "Miseducation," I thought it an auspicious opportunity to explore some topics that don't fit into my ordinary trajectory of artmaking. These topics invariably included the idea of the teenage girl and her role in horror/slasher films, and the demons of my own tumultuous teenage years—the experience of an fiery human creature emerging from childhood into a new body capable of both unique horrors and pleasures. Fueled by my interest in the occult, and by the availability of a nearby abandoned high school upstate, a new video/performance piece emerged.

This opportunity allowed me a new way to interact with my favorite materials: blood (or fake blood, as the case may be), mud, apples, and fragments of ice floes from the Hudson River. I've been thinking a lot about the role of material in performance and in film; and how different artists and filmmakers use their own particular substances to craft a tactile lexicon of their own biographies and preferences. Its especially relevant for artists/filmmakers who are texturally inclined: Beuys, Barney, Lynch, Deren...Its a somewhat obvious but deeply vital relationship for all artists to form. As I explore beyond my photographic practice to methods that are more experiential and interactive, the substance of what I interact with becomes more important. Unraveling the deeper significance of the substances, textures, and forms which I am innately attracted to is perhaps the most beneficial outcome of this experiment.

Above are stills from this new piece, "Untitled (Miseducation)" and below some film stills that were crucial visual research for the project (from "Jennifer's Body," "Carrie," and "Clueless.")

The exhibition opens Thursday, February 25, at 6pm, at
350 West Broadway, between Grand and Broome, and at RECESS (41 Grand Street).
My video is on view as part of the film/video program at RECESS.

for more info, please visit
http://www.thebrucehighqualityfoundation.com/Site/Brucennial.html
and make sure to check out what the Bruces have in the Whitney Biennial this year!

LOVEFISH ... film stills from November shoot

2009-12-21T14:03:00.010-05:00

Ariel Sims as the Queen, Richard Saudek as the King

Some stills from the late autumn production of my film, LOVEFISH, in Beaverkill, New York. Color 16mm, Kodak 500T.
Filming the last scene resumes in Spring 2010. The 20-minute short film will be released in fall 2010.

Moviemaking.

2009-11-09T21:30:00.010-05:00

What could be better than using my handy large-format photo skills to make a short experimental film? Juicy detail, rich color, and...kinetics. Thus, I am making a 20 minute film, based on the metaphysics of dreamstates. David Lynch has been at this topic for years with significant success (making giant strides in the battle of the dualistic versus the transcendent) and so its from this lineage that my work unfolds. Its a specific idea I've been tossing around for years; one which is finally ripe for the picking. Its been informed by my studies of folklore, alchemy, mysticism, and ancient earth based religions.

Starring Richard Saudek and Ariel Sims, this color 16mm film will be in production the week of November 15 (that's next week!) An estate in the sleepy, dark Catskill foothills is our location. The floors are painted red. Its minimal and grand. Its perfect.

I have a feeling this is going to be a really exciting moviemaking adventure in Upstate New York. I can't wait to share the results with you all. More to come.

WILDEN KLAUSEN TAROT I & II

2009-08-06T22:27:00.009-04:00

"The Wilden Klausen I & II."
Exhibited at "Smithumenta"
@the studio of Ray Smith, May 2009.
Brooklyn, NYC

Each is a 7'x3' digital C-Print, utilizing my own photographs as well as appropriated images of —and inspired by—ancient pagan Alpine traditions. These traditions are based in the myth of the "wild man." Each winter in the Alps, men dress in handmade costumes of fur, bone, and horns, to welcome the ghost of winter into the Alpine villages, often terrifying children and old women. In the summer, every five years they dress in hay and dance to ward off the evil mountain spirits. So compelling and beautiful. These creatures coexist with my landscapes in such an uncanny way. (These traditions, the Wilden Klausen, Perchten, and Wilde Mandle, are like the original LARPers. Mad respect.)

A bit about the process: I've always enjoyed putting images together in clusters, whether on the darkroom wall or my computer's desktop. Its like arranging a small symphony as opposed to listening to one note repeated. During the time I made the piece I was also particularly interested in the idea of the images as Tarot cards, spread out with a specific esoteric meaning to each one. Thus I officially married these images to a single piece of paper, with one plane to coexist on.

I'm interested in these monsters both on an anthropological level as well as part of a psychoanalytic component to understanding true human nature (i.e. coming to grips with the monstrous within us each, or as humanity en complete.) Expect them to return to my work—perhaps in a sculptural form, or in a film.

Also, the big group opening at Ray's was wonderful. Check out what the notorious art world blogger James Kalm had to say:

2008 Exhibition Archive//a look back.

2009-02-08T17:20:00.004-05:00

RUMSPRINGA::the Great Swamp, Amish raves, and Mickey Sumner

2009-01-27T02:23:00.008-05:00

The director of the play RUMSPRINGA, Pete Zinn, hired me to photograph my friend, actress Mickey Sumner, for the publicity photo and marquis poster. I took her to the Great Swamp and she got into character; she plays an Amish girl who leaves her community to become a blackjack dealer on a riverboat casino...Incredible. Its also about Amish raves which is even more incredible. The play opens at the Bleeker Street Theatre (45 Bleeker, NYC) this month, Feb. 2009. They wanted me to elicit a dark, ominous, psychedelic mood typical of my photographs, and place this forlorn Amish girl in the landscape.

Harold Arts (Woodland Utopia)

2008-08-12T20:09:00.009-04:00

The Harold Arts residency in July was amazing; there were numerous artists and musicians there that inspired me and participated in my artmaking process. (Oh and also helped me fix my various equipment problems and were generally brilliant.) There were so many, but since this is a photo blog here are a few photographers whose own art + process I got familiar with while I was there. Check out their awesome work:

Allison Grant www.allisongrant.com
Grant Ernhart www.granternhart.com
Krista Wortendyke www.kristawortendyke.com
Scott Cowan http://scottcowan.blogspot.com
Thomas Macker www.thomasmacker.com
Greg Stimac www.gregstimac.com

Oh, and I made a whole bunch of 8X10 photographs there, with a beautiful Deardorff that my friend P. Doyle lent me...a series called Witchunt...the first image to make its way onto the blog is underneath the blog title. Hopefully the whole series will be up on my portfolio website in the coming months. I'm also self-publishing an artist book of the series thanks to help from the Harold Arts staff (Maggie Haas! Nick Wylie! Emily Green!) so you'll hear more about the book soon.

RESIDENCY 2008

2008-05-17T15:07:00.006-04:00

Wow, I am so excited...this July I'll be attending my first residency, via the Chicago-based Harold Arts program (www.haroldarts.org)—located at the Jeffers Tree Farm in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, Ohio!

ANNOUNCEMENT. Oh! Naturale: a show//

2008-05-05T22:09:00.005-04:00

Simone Frazier and Emily Steinfeld have curated a show that will open this month, in which my work—and the work of some very lovely fellow artists—will be part of. Specifically, some of my All Ye Merry Pilgrims polaroids will be there.

it opens May 21, at 400 Morgan Avenue in Brooklyn.

The show includes work by the following artists:
Owen Hutchinson
Molly Gochman
Emily Steinfeld
Simone Frazier
Josh Kline
Sam Bornstein
Matt Lucas
Mollie McKinley
Revel Woodard
Pat Doyle
Henry Gwazda
Merissa Lombardo
Zack Kitnick
Kim Holleman

An excerpt regarding concepts behind the show, written by curator Simone:
"In the near future, the experts say we're going to have to return to an economic model based on local suppliers. Rising fuel prices and the end of cheap Chinese labor will force us to grow our own food and make our own shoes, the way they did in the Middle Ages. Abstractly, this has been a fetish of the hipper bourgeoisie for some years. Organic local produce, local artisanal honey, stretch pants made in downtown LA, etc. What's going to happen when this is no longer a pricier option, but the only option? Will it be a Bobo's dream come true, or some sort of weird New Feudalism?"

ALL YE MERRY PILGRIMS

2007-11-09T13:45:00.004-05:00

This series of Polaroids was taken in Sandwich, Massachusetts, the Cape Cod village where my father's maternal family settled in days of yore. Four generations of my family lived in the same historic house there. Puritan graveyards are endlessly inspiring, with their minimalist tablets of stone covered in abstractions of lichen.

ALL YE MERRY PILGRIMS

2007-07-05T13:12:00.003-04:00

ALL YE MERRY PILGRIMS

2007-07-05T13:09:00.002-04:00

ALL YE MERRY PILGRIMS

2007-07-05T13:06:00.003-04:00

the Escapists: production stills

2007-07-05T13:03:00.001-04:00

Mickey Sumner and Corey Sullivan in Andrew Gori's "The Escapists." Shot on location in Tivoli, New York, at the mansion. Summer 2007

coney island auras

2007-06-24T13:53:00.001-04:00

2007 was a good summer

2007-06-24T12:43:00.001-04:00

existential bliss: coney island

2007-06-04T22:06:00.001-04:00

a deer face

2007-05-13T17:22:00.000-04:00

pilgrims' progress

2007-05-08T01:00:00.002-04:00

the yesteryear of our soberist dreams. sandwich, mass and provincetown, mass.

seinsucht

2007-04-17T21:36:00.001-04:00

watch dog

2007-04-06T16:42:00.000-04:00

swamp and emu.

2007-04-06T16:04:00.000-04:00

our friend the goat: four polaroids

2007-04-06T15:16:00.001-04:00

2007-04-06T15:15:00.002-04:00

2007-04-06T15:15:00.001-04:00

2007-04-06T15:02:00.000-04:00

A Coney Island of the Mind

2007-03-03T15:36:00.000-05:00

C-Print from the Brighton Peir, UK, 2006

Polaroids—Instantaneous Nostalgia Archive

2007-03-03T15:08:00.001-05:00

these Polaroids are from 2004-2006. Locations: Bolinas, California; Cambridge, Mass; Cape Cod, Mass; Black Rock City, Nevada; the Great Salt Flats; Rhinebeck, New York; Germantown, New York. And a truck stop somewhere in the middle of the country.