Lydia McCarthy

106 Green is proud to present “Ego Death”, a new solo installation by Lydia McCarthy.

From the artist:

“Ego Death” is a selection of photographs from Non-Game Ecstasy, a series concerned with self-love, self-care, and a cult of feminine energy. According to The Psychedelic Experience, Game Reality is waking or egocentric reality, wherein one plays the game of life - it is the barrier to higher levels of consciousness. Building up exposures on color film, new objects, colors and patterns become talisman and transport the seeker to alternate realities. Each part of Non-Game Ecstasy, investigates a different aspect of journeying into new realms of consciousness and what the seeker may encounter along the way.

I approach this work as both participant and observer, collapsing the relationship between religious experience, neurological processes, optical aberrations and psychedelic culture. For me art making is a devotional act and through each installation the relationship between my beliefs and my inherent skepticism confront one another, asking the question: is this real or fabricated? This work reflects my uncertain search and the craving for spiritual transcendence.

"The first period (Chikhai Bardo) is that of complete transcendence – beyond words, beyond space-time, beyond self. There are no visions, no sense of self, no thoughts. There are only pure awareness and ecstatic freedom from all game (and biological) involvements."

-Leary, Timothy, Ralph Metzner, and Richard Alpert. The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

Lydia Anne McCarthy is a Brooklyn-based artist. Her work has been exhibited widely, including Essex Flowers and the Scandinavia House in New York and NAU Gallery in Stockholm. In 2012 she was included in the Humble Arts Foundation’s 31 Women in Art Photography. Lydia’s work has been reviewed and published in The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, Dossier and the Huffington Post. She received a yearlong American-Scandinavian Foundation Fellowship and has held residencies at the Banff Centre and the Vermont Studio Center.