In Miranda Maher’s installation, diaphanous white, cotton cheesecloth tumbles down the stairwell reminiscent of clothing and concealing drapery. Images of whole plants are caught in the folds, roots and all. These plants that Dickinson might have grown in her garden or found in nearby woodlans are arrested in space. Drawn to the top of the stairwell, the visitor discerns a contemporary voice reading the Emily Dickinson’s words. In this installation, Maher evokes the privilege of solitude and concealment so imperative to the writer and so closely associated with Dickinson. Maher also connects the activity of gardening, tending to growing plants, to that of writing poetry; putting words together to produce images that grow and flourish in the same manner as plants.

Miranda Maher creates installations, photographs, drawings and books. Over the past few years she has been fascinated by both birds and sound and embarked on a series that followed pigeon flocks in flight. Her subjects have also included dreams, war, and murderesses. Her work has been exhibited widely including the Urban Institute of Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids, MI; Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI; About-From-For-Nature, Yatoo, Chungnam, South Korea; Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn, NY; and White Columns, New York, NY. She earned her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI and her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomflield Hills, MI.

Technical/Installation Assistance: Robert (Chip) Stein
Emily Dickinson poems read by Barbara Henring