Nightshade, an installation by Tamalyn Miller, features four ornately printed canvas window shades that cover the large windows of the Sunroom and completely darken the room. The shades, designed to reference decorative floral motifs popular in the Victorian era, are inscribed with imagery and accompanied by poetic texts relating to several species of poisonous plants. Miller is interested in the mythology and folklore surrounding these plants, which reveal dark, hidden histories. Belladonna is believed to have been an ingredient in witches’ flying ointments, monkshood was imagined to have grown from the spittle of the three-headed dog Cerberus, and foxglove was said to be favored by malicious fairies. Many of the plants featured in Miller’s drawings, including monkshood, foxglove, thornapple and angel’s trumpet, can be found in Wave Hill’s gardens.

The lights in the Sunroom dim and brighten on a five-minute cycle, alternately exposing and then obscuring printed images and passages of illuminated text. These inscriptions are rendered in photoluminescent ink, their elusive visibility heightening the mysterious nature of their content. In this way, Miller highlights the inherent dualities of poisonous plants, contrasting medicinal capabilities with lethal ones, and the deceptively lovely flowers with more sinister stories.

Tamalyn Miller explores eclectic subjects ranging from witchcraft to infectious diseases. She is the author of five collections of poetry, Coffin Texts, CHANCE BOOKS, How to Sew a Glove, LURID DREAMS IN 5 DAYS and WORD CHURCH. These have also been fabricated as unique sculptural bookworks and shown at Thread Waxing Space, New York, NY and Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York, NY. As a member of the GALA Committee, she produced conceptual artworks that were inserted into the sets of the television show Melrose Place and later exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA and the Kwangju Biennale, Kwangju, South Korea. She also collaborated on S.O.S. (Straight Off the Street): MOMENT, which was exhibited at Longwood Arts Center, Bronx, NY and Deitch Projects, New York, NY. She is a member of the experimental folk band GODDESS, which has performed at the SculptureCenter, New York, NY and Tonic, New York, NY.

Organized by Assistant Curator Leigh Ross, the Sunroom Project Space provides an opportunity for New York’s emerging artists to develop a special project or create a new body of work to exhibit in a solo show. The five artists exhibiting in the 2008 season are: Jung Eun Park, Joanne Howard, Kim Baranowski, Adam Brent and Tamalyn Miller.

Study for Nightshade, 2008, detail Photoluminescent ink, digitally printed cotton canvas Dimensions variable Courtesy of the artist

Study for Nightshade, 2008, detail Photoluminescent ink, digitally printed cotton canvas Dimensions variable Courtesy of the artist

Study for Nightshade, 2008, detail Photoluminescent ink, digitally printed cotton canvas Dimensions variable Courtesy of the artist

Public Programs
October 19, 2pm, Meet the Artist. Tamalyn Miller discusses Nightshade in the Sunroom Project Space.
October 25 & 26, 1–4 pm, The Family Art Project: Glowing Monster Plant Masks. Fashion a mask that looks like a creepy blossom or ghostly plant that glows in the dark, with guidance from Tamalyn Miller.

The Sunroom Project Space series is supported in part by the Milton & Sally Avery Arts Foundation. Support for the Visual Arts Program is provided by Target, the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts–a state agency. Sustaining support for Wave Hill is provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

The Arts at Wave Hill are sponsored by