Updates from Mildred's Lane & The Mildred Complex(ity)
February 5–August 27, 2023
Mildred’s Lane / Robert Williams, Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum—The Alchemist’s Shack (1998–2023) included in Prima Materia: The Periodic Table in Contemporary Art,curated by Richard Klein, The Aldridge Museum, Ridgefield, CT
Robert Williams is a British artist and academic whose interests include alchemy, archaeology, folklore, speculative fiction, and popular culture. Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum—The Alchemist’s Shack (begun in 1998) is an ongoing project by the artist that presents an idealized past and an unrealizable and lost future of alchemy through connecting the life and work of alchemist Eirenaeus Philalethes (George Starkey; 1627–1665) with the deep traditions of alchemical practice in Europe, particularly England. The title of the work, Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, is taken from a scrapbook of alchemical texts assembled by Elias Ashmole (1617–1692), the founder of the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology at Oxford University. The Alchemist’s Shack exists as a specifically designed, freestanding building at Mildred’s Lane, the ninety-four-acre project site in rural Pennsylvania founded in 1998 by artists Mark Dion and J. Morgan Puett. For Prima Materia, the contents of the Shack have been disassembled and moved to The Aldrich and reconfigured to fit into the museum’s camera obscura space.
Opening March 11, 2023
VIROSA Presents: Degenerate Cinema at The Mildred Complex(ity) Project Space, Narrowsburg, NY
Degenerate adj. || 1 having declined, as in function or nature, from a former or original state 2 morally corrupt or given to vice 3 [mathematics] being simpler than the typical use, i.e., a degenerate hyperbola 4 [physics & astronomy] characterized by atoms stripped of their electrons and by very great density, i.e., degenerate matter; a degenerate star
Degenerate v. || 1 to pass from a higher to a lower type or condition 2 to sink into a low intellectual or moral state 3 to decline in quality 4 [biology] to evolve or develop into a less autonomous or functionally active formVIROSA Presents: Degenerate Cinema is an exhibition of experimental film, prints, and sculpture by VIROSA. Two recent narrative short films will be on view, both with deep ties to Mildred’s Lane. Poor Magic, a surrealist short about a foolish magician in pursuit of his shadow, was filmed at Mildred’s Lane during the pandemic lockdown of 2020. Fishbowl, an experimental narrative about a man who breaks into a museum to clean fossils by night, was edited at Mildred’s Lane in the deep winter of 2022 after filming in Los Angeles and Brooklyn. In addition to the films, VIROSA will exhibit objects in materials including glass, paper, clay, and 3D-printed plastic which have emerged from their filmmaking practice.
The exhibition will be on view through April 2023.
SUMMER 2023
Mildred’s Lane, Beach Lake, PA
Mildred’s Lane is forming the summer 2023 calendar of co-curated events, lectures, and workshops for and with our community in the deep woods of Beach Lake, PA and The Mildred Complex(ity) in TOWN on Main Street in Narrowsburg, NY. We are inviting letters of interest for small groups and individual retreats for the upcoming 2023 season. Application details can be found on our website.
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We are currently accepting letters of interest, seeking rotating Ambassadors of Entanglement to direct Mildred’s Lane into the future. Please contact mildredslane@gmail.com.
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We continue working on the long-awaited publication WORKSTYLES of Mildred’s Lane. More information is coming soon.
Support Mildred's Lane!
This year we are fundraising $150,000
Mildred’s Lane is planning for the future. Although we are a Pennsylvania Nonprofit Corporation, in order to ensure our legacy and future, we are filing to become an official 501c3 organization.
To do this, we must make crucial updates to our landscape to satisfy local zoning laws. Though much has been accomplished to meet the township’s demands, there are still many maintenance projects ahead of us. These changes are expensive.
Please contribute today
You can make a donation through one of the following options. Every cent goes directly to supporting our most immediate needs towards becoming an official 501c3 organization that will allow Mildred’s Lane to thrive for generations to come.
Our Fiscal Sponsor (Creative Visions)
Thank you to The Silbert Foundation / The Goldman Foundation / and all supportive individuals who prefer not to be mentioned.
Photo credits / First image: Prima Materia: The Periodic Table in Contemporary Art (installation view: Robert Williams, Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum – The Alchemist’s Shack, 1998–2023, Collection of Mildred’s Lane, Beach Lake, PA), The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, February 5 to August 27, 2023. Photo: Jason Mandella / Second Image: Courtesy of Studio VIROSA / All other images courtesy of and copyright Mildred’s Lane