A veritable escape from reality, Mandy Greer’s current exhibition, “The Ecstatic Moment” at the Hudson River Museum, immerses the viewer in all of Greer’s diverse artistic practices at once. Constructing a new world through her large-scale crochet installations, Greer uses yarn to link together elaborate costume works, fantastical photography, experimental films, sculptures and collections of objects (both natural and manmade) that she gathered herself or appropriated from the museum’s permanent collection.
Laid out across several of the Hudson River Museum’s exhibition halls, “The Ecstatic Moment” is organized into various “realms,” each one with its corresponding color scheme and mood. There’s the blue and white Ice and Water Realm, inspired by the awe-inspiring natural scenes Greer saw during a recent residency in Iceland; then there’s the Flesh/Lava Realm, which Greer says draws from the cozy Victorian interiors of the Glenview Mansion, the immaculately preserved estate where she stayed when the Hudson River Museum invited her to envision the work two years ago. The Vermillion Room, a bright red chamber, is an inferno-like space where Greer displayed work she created to combat the anxieties of motherhood. The artist turned to Greek mythology for inspiration for a costume of a fictional Poppy Goddess — an outfit she says she donned like protective armor in the photography series displayed in the show.
Through her various art forms, Greer draws connections between past and present and taps into her lineage as both a human being and an artist. Between the Victorian artifacts, ancient goddess imagery and collections of stones and minerals, the artist spins webs with her crochet and narrates with her photography, inviting viewers to navigate through the sinewy yarn into a fantasy space where time does not exist.
Mandy Greer’s “The Ecstatic Moment” is on view through September 14 at the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, New York.
Elaborate costuming on display in the Ice and Water Realm.
Installation view from the Ice and Water Realm.
Installation view from the ICe and Water Realm.
Stone Mother, 2012, archival ink jet photograph on rag paper
Installation view from the Celestial Realm of the exhibition.
Moon sculpture detail.
Pelican sculpture detail.
Some objects and curiosities displayed in the Earth and Forest Realm.
Installation view of the Earth and Forest Realm.
View from the Earth and Forest Realm.
Installation detail.
View of the Flesh/Lava Realm.
Installation detail.
The Ruby Heart, 2011. archival ink jet photography
View from the Vermillion Room.
Ember 2014, archival ink jet photography
Tom Biddulph and Barbara Ryan
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