WOMEN’S ORDER OF ALCHEMY AND MYSTICISM

SArah Rowe

SEPTEMBER 7 THROUGH SEPTEMBER 30

Virtual Opening: Saturday, September 12th, 2020 at 5:00PM
Artist Talk: Saturday, September 26th, 2020 at 5:00PM

This September, Empty Set opens to the public with the exhibition Women's Order of Alchemy and Mysticism.  With new artworks from artist Sarah Rowe, this exhibition remixes imagery primarily sourced from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Open Access images. Pivoting between sculptural shadow boxes, mixed media collages and a short film with music created by percussionist and composer Rohin Khemani, this installation engages with the artist’s desire to digitize and animate her analog collage work. Rowe’s reimagined artworks, likely familiar to anyone with a peripheral knowledge of art history, invert the canonized narrative creating a place where women lose the humdrum trappings of duty and the male gaze vaporizes. This installation makes space for secret societies, the practice of magic in sacred spaces, and documentation of women sharpening their skills as oracles and keepers of esoteric knowledge. 

Rowe states, “I have created a syncretic sisterhood, removing women from their stasis of the picture frame and allowing them the freedom to explore mysticism and alchemy and learn from one other.”  Sacred geometries, elixirs, and talismans are central to the artists’ investigation. Rowe re-contextualizes the female subject from Petrus Christus’ work, A Goldsmith in his Shop, in which the subject is thought to be selecting her wedding ring in both a still collage and animated collage. The artist’s version places the female subject in a room from Pompeii where she casts spells and mixes elixirs. 

The viewer too is complicit in the artists’ subversive pact. Entering the space, the macro and micro toggle, one is either standing in the middle of a three dimensional composition encompassing the long narrow project space or peering into the diminutive shadow boxes, akin to exploring the many rooms off a long corridor.  

Rowe credits her Catholic school upbringing as inspiration for these artworks.  Surrounded by societies of religious orders and steeped in religious imagery, Rowe mines her past for memories of witnessing the inner and contemplative lives of women in sacred societies. 

Sarah Rowe is an artist based in New York City. This is Rowe’s first endeavor working with video and her past work related to abandoned, obsolete and decaying architectural structures.  Rowe is a member of Infinite Archive and has participated in The Bronx Museum of Art’s AIM Fellowship, The Art & Law Program, and was a Create Change Fellow with The Laundromat Project. Rowe holds an MFA from Lehman College, 2013 and a BA from the College of the Holy Cross, 1998. The exhibition dates are September 7th-30th. The virtual opening will take place on Saturday, September 12th, 2020 at 5:00pm on IG Live.  There will be a virtual artist’s talk on Saturday, September 26th also on IG live.   Women’s Order of Alchemy and Mysticism will be on view through September 30th at Empty Set, 860 E. 136th Street, #10D, Bronx, NY. The exhibition can be viewed in person by appointment. Email or DM for an appointment.

Installation Views