Art / Spike island
Rosemary Mayer comes to Spike Island for her most comprehensive show to date
The New York-based artist Rosemary Mayer is bringing her renowned fabric sculptures to Spike Island in what will be the first time they have been displayed together since 1973.
Ways of Attaching spans over forty years of Mayer’s prolific and varied practice. The name plays with attachment as a method for binding materials together, and also for establishing emotional connections with friends and peers, past and present.
From large fabric sculptures, travel diaries and fleeting performances of the 1970s, through to pastels, watercolours and other works on paper from the 1990s and 2000s, Mayer’s material dexterity is seemingly endless.
is needed now More than ever
Rosemary Mayer, Some Days in April, installed during the week of April 17 (1978) photo: Spike Island
Exploring themes of temporary history and biography, Mayer’s art manifests itself in draping, knotting and imagined networks, in which friends and historical figures feature in expressions of affinity and attachment.
It’s no surprise that a historical theme flows through Mayer’s work, from mediaeval literature to Mannerist painting. The artist was fluent in Greek and Latin and studied classics at University.
Rosemary Mayer, In Time Order (Roses) (1978), courtesy The Estate of Rosemary Mayer and Gordon Robichaux, New York – photo: Spike Island
Also included in the exhibition are works on paper, photographs and documentation relating to Mayer’s performances of the late 1970s, which she called “temporary monuments”.
Here Mayer incorporated material such as weather balloons, ribbons and snow to create ephemeral works that are shaped by the connection of the sites to time, drawing together both the grounded and the cosmic.
Originally born in Brooklyn, Mayer spent her 1960s in the New York art scene, where she co-founded A.I.R., the first not-for-profit, artist-directed gallery for women artists in the United States.
Exploring themes of temporary history and biography, Mayer’s art manifests itself in draping, knotting and imagined networks, in which friends and historical figures feature in expressions of affinity and attachment.
It’s the most comprehensive display of Mayer’s artistic practice to date, as well as the first time her work has ever been shown in the UK.
Ways of Attaching will run from Saturday, October 8 to Sunday, January 15 2023.
Main photo: Spike Island
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