Matteawan Gallery presents Mollie McKinley: Thresholds and Totems. The exhibition opens Second Saturday, July 13, with a reception from 6 to 9 p.m. It runs through Aug. 3 and features recent sculpture, video and photography. In addition, McKinley will premiere a new live performance/collaboration with New York City performer Ariel Sims on the night of the opening, at 9:30 p.m.
Hanging from the gallery ceiling is Pony, a sculpture composed of fiberglass, rope, leather, paper and foam. Created using materials found along the banks of the Hudson River, Pony evokes the shape of a horse’s head while also referencing nautical themes and process art of the 1960s. Also on view are photographs from McKinley’s Temples and Existential Marina series, in which everyday objects are placed in natural settings, creating uncanny tableaux.
McKinley’s work addresses the concept of liminality: the mysterious in-between world that exists on a threshold, becoming a space between dream and reality, history and myth. The locations in her photographs and videos are real enough, but the people and things that inhabit them seem to come from another world.
McKinley lives and works in Beacon. She studied photography and film at Bard College. Her multimedia work has been exhibited and screened in Toronto, London, Berlin, New York City and Chicago. She has been a return artist in residence at both Harold Arts and the School of Making Thinking. McKinley was recently a panelist for the 2012 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships for Interdisciplinary Work, and she was a resident at the Wassaic Project in 2012.
Matteawan Gallery is located at 464 Main St. in Beacon; hours are noon to 5, Friday and Saturday, and Sunday by appointment. For additional information, visit matteawan.com.