Rosemary Mayer: Ways of Attaching

Edited by Eva Birkenstock, Laura McLean-Ferris, Robert Leckie, Stephanie Weber

Essays by Jenny Nachtigall, Laura McLean-Ferris, Jenni Sorkin

Designed by Santiago da Silva with Cecilia Breña

Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany/ Ludwig Forum, Aachen, Germany/ Spike Island, Bristol England/ Swiss Institute, New York, NY

2023


A comprehensive catalog on the work of New York artist Rosemary Mayer (1943–2014), Ways of Attaching provides an overview of the artist’s work, moving from early conceptual experiments of the late 1960s through to textile sculptures and drawings made in the early 1970s, before focusing on propositional and durational performances and temporary monuments made from 1977 to 1982. Highlighting Mayer’s formal interest in draping, knotting and tethering, Ways of Attaching focuses on the artist’s process of constructing real and imagined networks and constellations, in which friends and historical figures feature in expressions of affinity and attachment. It additionally features facsimile reproductions of Mayer’s writings and newly commissioned essays reflecting on her work and the influences of astronomy, feminism, the art scene in New York in the 1960s and ’70s, poetry, religion and Renaissance painting.


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Event

Book Launch and Talk: Attachment Theory with Laura McLean-Ferris

Swiss Institute

May 24, 2023


To celebrate the launch of the publication, curator and writer Laura McLean-Ferris will give a talk based on her essay “Attachment Theory,” which examines Mayer’s work in the context of feminist consciousness raising groups in the 1970s. The talk will be introduced by Marie Warsh, co-director of the Estate of Rosemary Mayer.