In our April/May 2009 issue, we featured the work of Mandy
Greer. Greer embraces mythology and nature to transform familiar spaces into
realms of enchantment. Her visceral and seductive crocheted environments, sculptures,
and garments have recently come together in a collaborative fiber/dance/film project
called The
Silvering Path, 2008, with dancer and choreographer Haruko Nishimura
and filmmaker Ian Lucero. Here we show a preview of the movie and Greer’s
work that was shown at the Aqua Art Fair, Miami, December 4–7, 2008.
The Silvering Path will be screened later this spring at
Museum of Contemporary
Craft (MCC), Portland, Oregon. For specific dates and times, check the museum
website or call (503) 223-2654. The exhibition Mandy Greer: Dare alla Luce is
on display at the MCC through May 31.
In December 2008, the Bucheon
Gallery of San Francisco invited Mandy Greer to create an installation at
the international contemporary art exhibition Aqua
Art Miami, Florida, a satellite fair to the annual Art
Basel Miami Beach. Whereas Art Basel Miami and its sister fair, Art
Basel, Switzerland, typically assign booths to their exhibitors, Aqua Art
Miami was presented at the Aqua Hotel in South Beach and used the facility’s
individual rooms to display a wide range of artwork. Exhibitors at the Aqua Hotel
typically tend to disguise the fact that the rooms are sleeping areas. Not so
for Sheila Cohen and Sidney Brown, owners of the Bucheon Gallery, who invited
artists to play up the bedroom theme. Greer included (among other works) two pieces
from her 2004 installation project the Wolf Prince and the Parrot Princess.
In their original incarnations, these pieces—a white rag rug and a chandelier
comprised of a multitude of pom-poms—evoked a vast arctic landscape that
separated an amorous yet oddball couple. In Miami, they came together more literally
as erotic ornament for the boudoir: the soft chandelier hung seductively overhead
while the supple coverlet, like swirls of pure white snow, adorned the lovers’
bed.
Snowball Chandelier and Snowdrift Rag Rug (with details), 2004; wool and synthetic
yarn, felt, steel and braided fabric; 4' x 4' x 6' (chandelier) and 10' x 10'
x 4" (rug). Shown by Bucheon Gallery, San Francisco, at Aqua Art Miami corresponding
with Art Basel Miami Beach, December 4–7, 2008. Photos: Kamala Dolphin-Kingsley.
