Dune / Shift was a cutaway of a coastal Atlantic sand dune with live native grasses in a triangular sculptural support installed on a site overlooking the Hudson River. It was created in 2019 for an exhibition produced by the Newburgh Sculpture Project at SUNY Orange in Newburgh, NY and curated by Kelly Schroer. Her outdoor sculpture Dune / Shift marked a significant development in her work and was her first public sculpture commission. McKinley has been creating sculpture and installations for the past decade, with her primary mediums being salt, glass, and wood. Mollie McKinley, Dune / Shift, 2019, dune grasses and plants, sand, earth, charred cedar, 36 x 96 x 96 in. This essay will focus on three recent works that feature text: Dune / Shift, Sublimation into Stone, and The Survival Language of Beauty, the latter of which is a new piece she has been working on for the past month that is inspired by recent events. Writing has increasingly become an important part of her practice. This liminal existence is an important underlying theme in her work.Ī talented writer, McKinley uses text to add another dimension to her compelling images. In her photographs and performances McKinley assumes the role of the priestess, a figure who moves between two worlds: the past and the present, the natural and human world, and the world of the living and the spiritual dimension. Her work references the American landscape, evoking myths of the wilderness and those who reside on the fringes of society. More than a backdrop, nature is a powerful force whose presence is palpable. For example, in her series Desert Gestures, Habitat Return she documented solo performances in the California desert and photographed one of her salt sculptures on the eroded rocks. McKinley deftly moves between photography, performance, video, sculpture, and text, often combining several mediums in one work.

It has an uncanny, otherworldly quality, yet it is solidly grounded in the earth. Mollie McKinley’s work is beautiful and mysterious.

Beauty mckinley