Mary Walling Blackburn: ♂ Anti-Fertility Garden
January 16 – February 22, 2015
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Out front: a garden containing plants alleged to cause sterility in men, including neem, papaya, and myrtle. Inside the galley: drawings, sculpture and video, similarly saturated with political vitriol, harsh laughter and, somehow, tenderness. Some objects are relics of old interventions, some propose new or impossible realities and most of them profane the concepts they touch. Genitals abound, but they aren’t what they seem: this cock is milk…these balls are a goddess…this cake is a grave.
RAFAEL KELMAN
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Mary Walling Blackburn works and lives in Dallas and New York City. Her concurrent work at SculptureCenter (Long Island City) entangles ivory, sister rivalry, poetry and penetration. Recent projects and publications include a free, downloadable pro-choice children’s book published by e-flux journal and the “Extra Earth Analog,” a compendium of critical reflections and images on the strangest stranger, published by Pastelegram. Later in 2015 she will attend the Headlands Residency in San Francisco, and perform at Beta Local in Puerto Rico.
http://welcomedoubleagent.com/
Organized in conjunction with Laurence Miller, with additional support by Rafael Kelman + Urso Blackburn
Images (L to R): Speculative Reconstructions of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s Lost Ivory Dildo, (2011-2015). Courtesy of SculptureCenter, NY. ♂ Anti-Fertility Garden (installation view) Drawing from the series David Meet Paul (David Hamilton Ballet Images Reconfigured); print, pastel, Walnut oil, tape, cardboard. ♂ Anti-Fertility Garden (performance).
PRESS
artforum.com http://artforum.com/archive/id=50092
Art in America http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-features/news/after-glenn-becks-blast-a-conversation-with-mary-walling-blackburn/
Bomb http://bombmagazine.org/article/836232/mary-walling-blackburn
Coronagraph http://coronagraph.pastelegram.org/Mary-Walling-Blackburn-with-Andres-Laracuente
San Antonio Current http://www.sacurrent.com/sanantonio/mary-walling-blackburn-anti-fertility-garden/Event?oid=2374435