Moon Tent for the Flower Moon
The Estate of Rosemary Mayer in collaboration with Reto Pulfer, commissioned by Hollybush Gardens London, hosted by Forma at FormaHQ
11 May 2025

Moon Tent for the Flower Moon is a one-night installation and celebration with readings, refreshments and moon viewing with The Estate of Rosemary Mayer in collaboration with Reto Pulfer, commissioned by Hollybush Gardens London and hosted by Forma. The event takes inspiration from Moon Tent (1982), a temporary installation by Rosemary Mayer (1943–2014).

Whilst researching material for an exhibition of Mayer’s work at Hollybush Gardens, her moon tent drawings with their various iterations and provocations such as ‘have you got the time’ and ‘can you stay up late?” prompted the idea to stage a moon tent on a London rooftop. Using the drawings as a guide and an invitation, Hollybush Gardens have worked closely with The Estate of Rosemary Mayer and artist Reto Pulfer (b.1981) to create a moon tent in the spirit of Mayer’s approach, with particular reference to the only moon tent she realised in her lifetime. Without any previous knowledge of Mayer’s work, Pulfer’s installations already shared the visual and material language of Mayer’s. His use of fabric and found materials, the temporality of the work, the appearance of ghosts and the presence of tents in his practice all resonate strongly with Mayer’s prolific body of work.

Rosemary Mayer’s Moon Tent was a site specific, ‘temporary monument’ realised on the night of the full moon in October 1982 at the home of art historian Robert Hobbs in Lansing, New York. The work was installed for one night and consisted of wrapping an existing wooden pavilion on Hobbs’ roof with glassine, which interacted with the light of the sun as it set and the moon as it rose. Guests gathered within the structure to play music, eat moon-shaped food and observe the moon.

Re-interpreting Moon Tent and referencing Mayer’s numerous drawings of tents, drapes, banners, fabrics and flags, Pulfer responds to the existing architecture of the FormaHQ building and the rooftop setting at Peveril Gardens. His practice investigates various conditions of mutability – he creates immersive installations using fabric, plants, drawings, paintings and a variety of found objects and frequently uses material which is close at hand to examine the relationships between humanity, nature and the cosmos. For Moon Tent for the Flower Moon, he has created a series of braids, garlands and fabrics which intercept the apertures and architecture of the existing building – an intergenerational call and response with Mayer’s original Moon Tent across time, place and practices.

Mayer also made several drawings of ‘florals’ designed to be placed on a wall near a moon tent. Although she did not specify the materials for the florals, they appear to share the same ephemeral quality and materiality as the moon tent drawings and also that of her Scarecrow and Ghost sculptures, which she wrote ‘could glitter, change colours, fade past transparency to disappear.’ At FormaHQ, Marie Warsh of The Estate of Rosemary Mayer brings together new, handmade florals, realised with direct reference to the drawings and made in situ from the glassine, cellophane and coloured papers that frequented Mayer's practice.

Throughout the evening, seasonal and moon-inspired food and drinks will be shared among guests, with readings by artist Siobhan Liddell, from the poetry of Mayer’s sister, Bernadette Mayer, writer Vanessa Onwuemezi and artist and writer Natalie Häusler, who recently exhibited alongside Mayer’s friend and collaborator, Ree Morton as part of a two-person exhibition at Kunstmuseum Bochum, Germany.

This event is organised in association with a solo exhibition by Rosemary Mayer at Hollybush Gardens (10 May–21 June 2025). The exhibition includes the sculptural works Scarecrow (model) for a field, 1978–79 and a new Ghost, Irises, 1980–81/2025, as well as drawings of Mayer’s moon tents, florals and fabrics.

Rosemary Mayer (1943-2014) was a prolific artist involved in the New York art scene beginning in the late 1960s. Most well-known for her large-scale sculptures made with fabric, she also created works on paper, artist books, and outdoor installations, exploring themes of temporality, history, and biography. During the 1970s she had exhibitions at various alternative spaces in New York City, including one of the earliest shows at A.I.R Gallery, the first cooperative gallery for women, of which she was a founding member. She was also a critic and writer, contributing to various journals of artists’ writings and creating an issue of the magazine Art-Rite. Her interest in art history, and particularly the artists of the Mannerist period, resulted in her translation of the diary of Jacopo da Pontormo, which was published alongside a catalog of her work by Out of London Press in 1982. Beginning in the 1990s, she became focused on teaching art, eventually becoming a professor at LaGuardia Community College in Queens.

Since Mayer’s death in 2014, her estate has helped to organise exhibitions and publications of her work, beginning with an exhibition at Southfirst Gallery in Brooklyn in 2016 and the publication of excerpts from her 1971 journal. In 2020, her work was introduced to European audiences through Nick Mauss’s exhibition, Bizarre Silks, Private Imaginings and Narrative Facts, etc., at Kunsthalle Basel and her first solo exhibition there, Rods Bent Into Bows, at ChertLüdde in Berlin. In 2021, a solo show at Gordon Robichaux in New York entitled Pleasures and Possible Celebrations, focused on her installations with balloons and related work. Her work was also included in Greater New York 2021 at MoMA PS1, in Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces, at MoMA and in SIREN (some poetics) at the Amant Foundation in Brooklyn in 2022.

The first institutional survey of her work, Ways of Attaching, opened at the Swiss Institute in New York in autumn 2021.The exhibition was organised in partnership with Ludwig Forum, Aachen; Lenbachhaus, Munich; and Spike Island, Bristol, where the exhibition traveled in 2022. A catalogue of this show was published in 2022. Mayer’s work is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, Lenbachhaus, Munich, and numerous private collections. The Estate of Rosemary Mayer is represented by Gordon Robichaux, New York and ChertLüdde, Berlin.

Hollybush Gardens was founded in 2005 by Lisa Panting and Malin Ståhl and is located in Clerkenwell, London. Since its inception, the gallery has remained committed to producing curatorial discourse in dialogue with an international and intergenerational array of artists. Alongside its exhibition programme, Hollybush Gardens generates publications, talks, performances, and other platforms in support of the artists’ multidisciplinary practices. Gallery artists are represented in a broad range of international collections and have participated in many prizes, such as the Turner Prize (Claudette Johnson and Jasleen Kaur, 2024; Charlie Prodger, 2018; Andrea Büttner and Lubaina Himid, 2017), The Suzanne Deal Booth / FLAG Art Foundation Prize (Lubaina Himid, 2024), the Maria Lassnig Prize (Lubaina Himid, 2023), ars viva Prize for Visual Arts (Jumana Manna, 2017), Jarman Award (Charlie Prodger, 2017; Kirshner & Panos and Claire Hooper, 2011), Swiss Art Awards (Reto Pulfer, 2016), Prix de Rome (Falke Pisano, 2013), MaxMara Prize for Women (Andrea Büttner, 2009).

Reto Pulfer (b. 1981, Bern, Switzerland) lives and works in Uckermark, Germany. Recent solo exhibitions include Fachzustand, Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, Switzerland, (2024); Livingthings, Hollybush Gardens, London; Tagetes und Nachtkerze, Spaced Out, Kerkow, Germany; Blitzzzustand, Kunstverein KunstHaus Potsdam, Germany (all 2022); edrerde, Hollybush Gardens, London (2021); Reto Pulfer:Gegenwartsgewaechse, Fundaziun Nairs, Switzerland (2020); Angiozustand, Lafayette Anticipations, Paris (2020).Recent group exhibitions include Accumulation, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich (2025); Zustand Urgeflecht, Museum Haus Konstruktiv Zürich (2024); Common Ground, 8th Weiertal Biennale, Winterthur; Burning Natures, Rosenblut & Friedmann, Madrid (both 2023); Soil to Soil, Gebert Stiftung für Kultur, St. Gallen, Switzerland (2022); The Stomach and the Port, Liverpool Biennial 2021 (2021).

Siobhan Liddell (b. 1965, Worksop, UK) lives and works in New York. Liddell has presented solo exhibitions at Gordon Robichaux, New York (2025, 2022 and 2019); Hollybush Gardens, London (2023); CRG Gallery, New York (2010, 2006, 2002, 1999); Thread Waxing Space, New York (1993); Trial Balloon, New York (1992); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2000); Galerie Eric Dupont, Paris (2010, 2005, 2003, 1995); Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, UK (2001). Recent group exhibitions include Finding Aid, Goldsmiths CCA, London (2024); Fragments, a two-person presentation with Linda Matalon curated by Ksenia M. Soboleva, Candice Madey, New York (2022) and Get Lifted! curated by Hilton Als, Karma, New York (2021).

Natalie Haüsler (b. 1983) is an artist and poet based in Berlin. Her work is characterised by a continuous dialogue between visual art and poetry and the interweaving of diverse narratives and ways of writing into environments which often engage several senses at once. Häusler constructs physical spaces which the reader / viewer / listener and the poem inhabit together. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally including Kunstmuseum Bochum; Noplace, Oslo; Kunstverein Bielefeld; Supportico Lopez, Berlin; Combo, Córdoba; Municipal Gallery of Lisbon; ICA, London; KM - Halle für Kunst & Medien, Graz; Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo; Hacienda, Zürich; Raven Row, London; Kunstverein Nürnberg; Herman Nitsch Museum, Naples; KIT/Kunsthalle Düsseldorf; Nurture Art Foundation, New York and Kunsthalle Ravensburg. Her book “Corals” was recently published with BOM DIA BOA TARDE BOA NOITE, Berlin. “A Virus Can be on a Mussel […]” was published in 2014 by Mousse, Milan, IT. Her writing also appeared in Peripheries Journal, Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard University, Cambridge, US; Afterall Books, One Work: David Horvitz, MIT Press, Cambridge, US; VierSomes 004, Birkbeck College Contemporary Poetics Research Centre, London, UK; Blackbox Manifold (14), University of Cambridge/Sheffield, UK; General Fine Arts 1/1, Version House, Berlin, DE and in Noon on the Moon, Sternberg, Berlin, DE. “To Each Concrete Man. Natalie Häusler & Ree Morton”, an extensive publication on both artists will be released in winter 2025.

Vanessa Onwuemezi is a writer living in London. She was the winner of The White Review Short Story Prize, 2019 and her work has appeared in literary and art magazines, including Granta, Frieze and Art Review. Her debut short story collection, Dark Neighbourhood, was published in 2021 and was named one of the Guardian’s Best Books of 2021. She was the inaugural writer in residence at the Roberts Institute of Art residency, 2023 and Scholar of Note at the American Library in Paris, 2024.