Mattress Factory

COMMUNITY ART LABS: WHAT THE KIDS HAVE TO SAY

For the past two weeks an enthusiastic bunch of students have taken up their own artist residence at the Mattress Factory for Community Art Labs. Pittsburgh puppet maker Cheryl Capezzuti has been working with a group of 10 to 13-year olds to transform both every day and unusual materials into one-of-a-kind creatures and full-body puppets.




Artist John Peña has been guiding students through various stages of sculpture, from miniature to massive! 


You can see more pictures of Community Art Lab on our Flickr page.
As today is the last full day of workshops for our first session, Director of Education Felice Cleveland sat down with the young participants to hear what they had to say about the Mattress Factory and their workshops. Some of the best responses are below:


Do you know what installation art is?
-Yes, art you can walk into –  a place that you can actually live in.
-Yes, art that you can get into – inside of it and connected with it.
-Yes, art that makes use of space or that you can be inside of.
-Yes, when art is made in the space and it is IN the space.
-Something that is creative and can use any material, anything you can imagine.


What have you learned at Community Art Lab?
-That you never make mistakes in art, even if you mess up to keep going
-How to work better with other people, work more quickly and execute an idea faster.
-That there is art that stands out and art that doesn’t. I learned that "ephemeral" is something that lasts for a very short time.
-Art isn’t just painting and sketches. You don’t need anything fancy to make art (i.e. we are using a lot of cardboard!).


What was your favorite activity at Community Art Lab?
-Making the project where something fits in your hand five or ten times bigger.
-Making small and big puppets – it was very artistic and we used recycled materials. Working together on one project but trying different materials. 
-Giant puppets and making giant things.


How did you like being at the Mattress Factory all day?
-I like it, it's fun and different. I’ve never been to a camp with so many activities and you actually get to go outside and eat lunch in a piece of artwork.
-I like it a lot. I like the atmosphere of both classes. It is happy like a family.
-I LOVE it, because it is fun and creative and you get to not just look at art, but go in to it.


How does Community Art Lab compare to other programs you have participated in?
-It is more exciting here and you get to do everything.
-It is better than others, you can make so many things with all your teachers and it is so fun.
-Everyone is treated the same – both adults + kids. There is a better quality of art/materials.
-This program is a lot more work—more collaborative.
-It is a museum and it is a lot of art – there are better and more interesting projects at CAL. Other
camps have projects I already know and something I don’t know is more interesting.
-All other programs were science / math, so this was more creative and laid back. There were no wrong ideas for projects.


What improvements could be made to Community Art Lab?
-Longer – having more weeks.
-Longer days.
-We could add more weeks and have more activities and different artists come.


Do you have any other comments?
-The Mattress Factory is awesome.
-I think that there is a good amount of staff who were all very charismatic and I’m glad they had air conditioning.


All of the students involved in this summer's Community Art Labs will take part in a celebration August 9 from 6-8pm. Come check out what all the budding artists who participated in our workshops have been up to this summer. Invite your friends to come with you and see incredible artwork (both in our permanent collection AND made by students) and never-before-seen performances, participate in hands-on workshops and enjoy light fare. Free; RSVPs requested to felice[at]mattress[dot]org.

Thanks to all of our 2013 Community Art Lab participants. We're glad we have air conditioning too!


POSTED BY MANDY
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Categories: Museum [Tech] Blogs + Stuff

FEMINIST AND . . . IN RETROSPECT

During the last week of the installation, Feminist And..., we detailed our intern Matthew Liner to document some of the works for our blog. Matthew dug deep and spent time in each of the spaces to share them in his own words. Below are his interpretations of works by Parastou Forouhar, Loraine Leeson and Carrie Mae Weems.



Feminist And…Orientalism:  The Work Of Parastou Forouhar

Parastou Forouhar’s Written Room defies traditional boundaries of architecture. The walls and floor are covered in an ornamental Farsi that branches and sweeps over the white of the room. The writing does not obey the “up-down direction” that Forouhar attributes to architecture. Instead, she reimages the space as a place where her language fails in everyday life, separating her from both the Western culture that sees her home as an “alien society” and the native Iran that rejects her beliefs.


Through her illustration, animation, painting, and sculpture, Forouhar observes how we, as Westerners, observe “Oriental-Islamic” culture. To the average Western viewer, the writing on the walls of Written Room is indecipherable. The Persian language becomes pure ornamentation: a beautiful script that simultaneously alienates and contains its audience. The cultural gulf created by the disparity between languages separates the audience from what surrounds them. They can find no beginning, no end, and no words for interpretation. The effect is that of expatriates in a foreign country: thrust into a new culture and forced to give up an authoritative standpoint, isolated by what surrounds them.


However, Forouhar complicates her work. The Farsi on the walls only offers snippets of phrases and words, leaving the piece broken and obfuscated to even those who can read her writing. The choice to further the distance between the audience and the artwork hints at the beginnings of the project as it relates to the identity of an expatriate, distanced from both the culture she’s in and the culture she’s from.


Forouhar’s parents were assassinated on November 21, 1998. Her parents, Dariush and Parvaneh Forouhar, were the first of the “Chain Murders”—political murders of the Iranian government’s opposition. A year later, Forouhar began her Written Room project, building a body of work that explores national identity from a country known for political prosecution of women and activists.


Since the deaths of her parents, the Iranian government has challenged Forouhar at every attempt to memorialize her parents’ deaths. Most recently, in November of 2012, she was stopped and had her passport confiscated upon entering the Iranian airport. Her precarious situation makes obvious the dilemma of the expat existing between a cultures that misunderstands and a culture that rejects.


You can view more of Forouhar’s work, as well as read her essays on her website.


Feminist And…Community Perspectives:  Loraine Leeson’s Active Energy


“If there were any technology that could be developed that you feel would best support yourselves or your communities, what would that be?”

Loraine Leeson's art practice revolves around the above question. Through her work, she’s helped raise awareness for a variety of issues, bringing communities together around a single cause. Her community-centered art has worked to benefit communities for the past 30 years. In the 80s, Leeson co-founded the Docklands Community Poster Project, which ran during the ten-year re-development of the London Docklands. In 2002, she founded cSPACE, a website dedicated to the exploration of collective creative practice.


In 2008, Leeson began Active Energy, a series of interviews with the Geezers Club in London’s East End. This project has Leeson directly asking her subjects what technology they thought would support their community, and the group banded together in answering the question with a concern about alternative energy in the Thames. Since, the group has made a proposal to install turbines in the river.

Bringing the project to Pittsburgh with the Mattress Factory, Leeson posed the same question to a group of senior North Side women, and they answered with their concerns about Alzheimer’s. The videos of the interviews, exploring their concerns about dementia and aging, are paired with those of the Geezers in London. Outside the viewing room, a small table and video station offer an interactive segment of the piece, where viewers can watch more in-depth interviews, as well as find out more about the project. The effect of the piece is a cacophony of voices, blending concerns of mental and environmental health from both sides of the Atlantic, and connecting with Betsy Damon’s addition to the exhibition.
           
Find out more about Loraine Leeson’s work at the Active Energy website and join in on the conversation in the comments below. What technology do you feel would best help the local community?



Feminist And…Pepper’s Ghost:  Carrie Mae Weems’ Lincoln, Lonnie, and Me



What do Carrie Mae Weems and Tupac Shakur have in common?

They’ve both taken the form of Pepper’s Ghost.


Carrie Mae Weems’ installation at Mattress Factory (which recently traveled to the Look3 festival) builds on an already diverse body of work that examines the legacies of racism, sexism, and classism in American culture through far ranging media. For her piece at the Mattress Factory—Lincoln, Lonnie, and Me – A Story in Five Parts—Weems skews the use of film in a way only she can, by conjuring up Pepper’s Ghost., a technique with roots in the 16th-century that still wows audiences today.


In the late 16th-century, Neapolitan scientist Giambattista della Porta set down instructions for an illusion titled “How we may see in a Chamber things that are not.” The instructions, which describe using a polished glass pane to reflect objects completely outside the audience’s field of vision, are (according to Wikipedia) the first description of Pepper’s Ghost.
Fast-forward to 1862, and the inventor Henry Dirks has developed a theatre spectacle known as the Dirksian Phantasmagoria, an update to the illusion that fills an entire stage.  Dirks’ technique proved too costly for theater owners to support, since the entire stage needed to be rebuilt for his effect to work. So, John Henry Pepper, a scientist and inventor with The Royal Polytechnic Institute in London, popularized a modification of Dirks’ technique that was cheaper. Pepper’s name was permanently tied to the technique, although he did try to give Dirks credit.

Since its popularization, the technique has been used by everyone including amateur haunted house builders to the team that brought Tupac Shakur back to life at Coachella 2012.


Weems uses the illusion to great effect, capitalizing on the ethereal quality of Pepper’s Ghost to show how the history of race, gender, and class in America still haunts our culture today.





-Posted by Matthew, marketing intern

Categories: Museum [Tech] Blogs + Stuff

Jene Highstein, 1942 - 2013

Categories: Museum [Tech] Blogs + Stuff

2013 URBAN GARDEN PARTY WRAP-UP

2013 URBAN GARDEN PARTY
SOUL FACTORY: MOTOWN AT THE MUSEUM
Friday, June 21, 2013
 
This year's Urban Garden Party was again a sold-out affair, with nearly 1,400 guests flocking to the North Side to get down in support of Art You Can Get Into. The event raised an unprecedented $265,000 for the museum's artistic programs, educational outreach and operations. Following the fundraiser, over 400 people attended Community Garden Party for art activities, performances, workshops and fun! Click here to view pictures from this year's party.

GENERAL ADMISSION 7-11PM | SOLD OUT
VIP 6PM | SOLD OUT
Go back to a time when clothes were a little flashier, hair was a little funkier and 45 rpm was the only speed in town. Marking the museum's 35th year in Pittsburgh's North Side and looking ahead to our fall exhibition, Detroit: Artists in Residence, the Mattress Factory presents Soul Factory: Motown at the Museum. Co-Chairs Anne + Anuj Dhanda invite you to groove on over in your hippest rags for the museum's annual fundraiser, headlined Vancouver-based DJ The Gaff. This year's funk fest will feature over 40 of Pittsburgh’s best restaurants and caterers, pop-up performances by live entertainers including Kierra Darshell's Divas of Drag and DJ Zimmie, a silent auction of one-of-a-kind artwork, a Motown photo booth and dancing. A VIP pass will open the doors to the exclusive VIP pre-party from 6 - 7:30pm, hosted by Bob Sendall of All in Good Taste and featuring signature cocktails poured by Tender and Verde with Wigle Whiskey and Clique Vodka. Title Town Soul & Funk Party will provide Motown sounds from the 60s and 70s on original 45s and a private performance by Kierra Darshell's Divas of Drag will open the floor for you to shake your own groove thang in our Soul Train dance-off. Your VIP pass also gets you access to the VIP Lounge--including exclusive entertainment, a private bar, restroom and courtyard for VIPs only--throughout the night.

SOUL FACTORY AFTER PARTY
After the excitement dies down at MF, slide on over to Penn Brewery at 800 Vinial Street for the official Soul Factory after-party! All party attendees are invited to the after party, so SAVE YOUR WRISTBANDS for exclusive drink specials, a DJ and more. Check back for details as they are confirmed!



SOUL FACTORY CO-CHAIRS
Anne Nemer Dhanda + Anuj Dhanda

SOUL FACTORY HOST COMMITTEE
Mary-Lou Arscott
Christine Astorino
Judith Berger
Molly + Peter Blasier
Jessica + Jeff Brown
Pamela Z. Bryan
David Bush + Tim McVay
Lalit + Supriya Chorida>
Dan Drawbaugh + Sarah Thomas
Sherry DuCarme + Jeff Crummie
Rich + Cindy Engler
Peggy Finnegan
Beth Ann Fuhrer
Bryan Garlock + Deb Bergren
Paul J. Gitnik
Bob Hoover + Kathleen DeWalt
Rick + Laurie Johnson
Ryan Lammie
Susan + Scott Lammie
Jacqui + John Lazo
Martin Lazor + Karen Fredette
Scott Leff + Marilyn McDaniel
Helene + Tom Long
Muriel Luderowski
Ellen Mazo
Annie O'Neill
Nancy + Woody Ostrow
Councilman Bill Peduto
Terry + Tracey Perles
Donna + John Peterman
Marirose + John Radelet
Frances + Smokey Robinson
Caryn Rubinoff + Craig Dunham
Sharon Semenza + Bill Robinson
Dmitri + Ann Shiry
Rosanne Silva + Michael Tonkin
Eric Smith
Gene L. Svrcek
John Verbanic
Anoo + Viju Verghis
Alan + Martina Wells
Eric Werner
Michael White + Rick LeBeau
Maureen Young
Mazen Youssef + Suzan Obagi

SOUL FACTORY SPONSORS

$15,000
UPMC + UPMC Health Plan

$10,000
Anonymous
AT&T
CA Technologies
CGI
EMC
IBM
Oracle
Tata Consultancy Services

$5,000
Avaya
Cisco Systems
ConsultUSA
Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield
NACR
PNC Bank
PPG Industries Foundation
Presidio
Visa

$2,500
Allegheny General Hospital
Anne + Anuj Dhanda
H.J. Heinz Company
National Financial, A Fidelity Investments Company
The Pittsburgh Steelers
Schell Games
Xerox

$1,500
Plastic Surgery of Pittsburgh

$1,000
41st Parameter
Amcom
Gartner Inc.
Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence, University of Pittsburgh
KPMG
Susan + Scott Lammie
Marilyn Coleman Consulting
Radiant Hall Studios

SOUL FACTORY MEDIA SPONSORS
WHIRL
Yelp
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
90.5 WESA + 91.3 WYEP

SOUL FACTORY FOOD + BEVERAGE SPONSORS
2 Local Girls
All in Good Taste Productions
Atria's @ PNC Park
Bar Marco
Bean Catering/Just Bean Coffeehouse
Big Boss Ice Cream
Bluebird Kitchen
Clique Vodka
Coca Cafe
Diageo-Guinness USA
Divine Delectables
Donato's Restaurant
Double Wide Grill
E2
Eclipse Lounge
Enrico's Biscotti Co.
Erin's Fine Foods
Fukuda
Gina Marie's Catering
Girasole
Half Baked
Jimmy Wan's Restaurant and Lounge
JPC Event Group
La Prima Espresso Co.
Legume
Lola Bistro
Luma
Marty's Market
Monterey Pub
Ola Appetit Catering Company
Opening Night Catering
Penn Brewery
PGH Taco Truck
Pittsburgh Candy Buffet
Pittsburgh Winery
PVI Global Imports
Rania's Catering
Rita's Italian Ice
Tender
The Capital Grille
The Culinary Artists Gourmet Catering Group
The Elbow Room
The Grateful Deli
The Greek Gourmet
Tupelo Honey Teas
Verde
Wigle Whiskey


FRIENDS OF THE MF
17th Street Cafe
ALCO Parking Corporation
Flowerama
Hilbish McGee Lighting Design
J.V. Chujko
Massage Envy Spa - Squirrel Hill
Mistick Construction Company + Northside Associates
Nakama
Party Savvy
Shults Ford




ADDITIONAL THANKS
 


VIDEO CREDITS  
The Gaff and Skratch Bastid: Good Old Days Pt. 2           
The Gaff: Do That Thing          
Girl Talk: This is the Remix 
Love Skateboards: Rob Mentov and Justin Bohl: Nothing Stops Detroit
The Best of Soul Train

Categories: Museum [Tech] Blogs + Stuff

Soul Factory: Motown at the Museum -- A HUGE success!

Nearly 1,400 party-goers boogied into the night under the main tent at the 2013 Urban Garden Party.
Photo by Bridgett Kay Photography
Last Friday night nearly 1,400 people turned out to make merry and boogie down on the North Side. The tent was rocking and the garden was packed! Mash ups by The Gaff and DJ Zimmie soared through the balmy air and hoards of Pittsburgh's grooviest art supporters shimmied and shook into the night. After tallying up all of our ticket sales and sponsor pledges, we brought in a whopping $260,000 for the museum. That is the most we've ever raised in the Urban Garden Party's 16-year history, and it's all thanks to you!

Some of the coverage we have received to date:

"Its reputation preceding itself, the 2013 Urban Garden Party lived up to all expectations by unleashing a torrent of glorious celebration that left its mark on 1,300 who traded convention for a night unlike any other." -Kate Benz, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

"So began an evening that is the envy of every nonprofit in town, a bash that's pure fun and still made $250,000 thanks to chairs Anuj and Anne Nemer Dhanda." -Marylynn Uricchio, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

WPXI's See and Be Seen, Urban Garden Party held at Mattress Factory

Mattress Factory Co-Director Barbara Luderowski, Chairman of the Board Michael White and Co-Director Michael Olijnyk
Our photographers were roving the party all night and we're uploading pictures to Flickr as we get them. We would also love your submissions to our group pool with the tag ugp2013. Or tweet your pics to @mattressfactory using #soulfactory. If you had your picture taken in our photo booth at the party, your pictures are here.





Finally, a big heartfelt Mattress Factory THANK YOU to our co-chairs Anne + Anuj Dhanda. We could not have thrown the hottest party in Pittsburgh without the help of our co-chairs, who not only know how to steer a party-planning committee, they also know how to get down! We are so grateful to the Dhandas and all of our sponsors for their incredible support this year. Make sure to help us thank our sponsors by seeking them for any of the professional services they provide. 

Party co-chairs Anuj (left) and Anne (right) Dhanda shake it with a go-go dancer

Keep an eye out on our website for the announcement of next year's Urban Garden Party date!
  POSTED BY MANDY
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Categories: Museum [Tech] Blogs + Stuff

ONCE UPON A MATTRESS: WORKING "AS AN ARTIST"

As we discovered in our last post from the MF Archives, James Turrell's 1983 exhibition at the Mattress Factory marked a significant turning point for the museum, which until then had only exhibited works by local artists. Though the museum's exhibition program has grown to include works by artists from over 25 countries, many aspects of the early life of the Mattress Factory remain unchanged. In particular, I find it fascinating to look back and reflect on the museum's long-standing dedication to maintaining a creative workspace for artists. Ever since the very beginning, co-directors Barbara and Michael have encouraged artists to experiment with their craft, unencumbered by deadlines or commitments, and with the undivided support of the entire museum staff.

James Turrell planning his installations at the Mattress Factory, 1983

James Turrell's month-long residency was a flurry of activity. He worked alongside the construction crew, drafting and re-drafting plans, hanging drywall, and experimenting with a variety of effects until he was satisfied that his vision had been realized.



James Turrell planning and re-planning his installations, 1983
In November 1983, Turrell described his Mattress Factory residency as providing the time to take risks and explore far more possibilities within a space than he expected in a standard museum setting. He described the experiences as allowing him to "work as an artist," making messes, changing plans last minute, and allowing the artwork to evolve and develop through the creation process.[1]

  James Turrell working "as an artist."
The 1983 Mattress Factory presentation of James Turrell works was a part of, Urban Pulses: The Artist and the City, a cross-institutional, city-wide exhibition heralded as the most significant expression of contemporary art in Pittsburgh in decades.[2] Over the course of several months contemporary art heavyweights Keith Haring, Jenny Holzer, Paul Thek, Gilbert and George, Romare Bearden, Roger Welch, Ed Paschke, Michael Smith, David Wojnarowczs and others filled gallery spaces across the city, offering varying takes on notions of urbanity, expression, and the grit of the city life.

Without a doubt, the most lasting work from this intensely vibrant period in the Pittsburgh art scene are the two Turrell works created during his residency, Pleiades and Danaë. We'll look closer at these works and learn about how they came to stay at the Mattress Factory in our next post.  


[1] Mattress Factory.  1983 Programs Completed Report.  Artists Files Collection. Mattress Factory Archives, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 

[2] Miller, Donald. "Most significant art show since 69." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 22 October 1983: 21. Google News Web. 17 June 2013. 



POSTED BY MOLLY
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Categories: Museum [Tech] Blogs + Stuff

GardenLab@510

As Pittsburgh moves into warmer and sunnier weather, consider visiting one of the Mattress Factory's outdoor projects: Rose Clancy's GardenLab@510. This summer marks the fourth year that Clancy has worked with abandoned sites neighboring the Mattress Factory. GardenLab@510 is the second of two reclaimed spaces that Clancy has used to explore the relationship between neglect and nurture. Clancy experiments using aspects of archeology, gardening, sculpture, and her personal history. In the spirit of the Mattress Factory's focus on how a site influences how an artwork is developed, Clancy reflected on how her more recent GardenLab@510 has evolved:

Originally, the GardenLabs project began when I transplanted potatoes from a former project to 516. Once GardenLab@516 ended, I made elements of that project portable and moved them to 510. During GardenLab@510's first year, I observed the natural conditions of the site and then worked with those conditions to maximize the success of a garden in that space. I also kept some of the elements that already existed in that space: some plants and some man-made items. In contrast to 516, the garden at 510 is not completely enclosed. This has allowed for more community access: there have been tours, an ArtLab performance with children dressed as bees, and many impromptu conversations with neighbors passing by. As this became apparent to me, I wanted to show appreciation to my neighbors so I grew communal herbs. This year's focus at 510 is on the garden as a studio. I'll be making work in a bean house that will house a workbench. Some of the work that I make could make its way back into the community...

Clancy works with aspects of gardening, but she does not consider herself a gardener. She makes choices in her GardenLabs primarily on how: elements can be metaphors for her personal history, how plants respond to being neglected or nurtured, and also how the community responds to the plants and overall project. While Clancy highlights the conceptual aspects of her GardenLabs, she recognizes that she is working with actual plants in a real neighborhood and that she must be sensitive to how this ecosystem evolves. Her choices affect nature and the neighborhood, and their evolution affects the practical and conceptual choices in her artmaking. Clancy invites visitors to stop by anytime, but encourages people to make more than one trip since the space changes so much from week-to-week.

Check out images of GardenLab@510 on Rose Clancy's Facebook page.

Categories: Museum [Tech] Blogs + Stuff

ONCE UPON A MATTRESS: JAMES TURRELL

This is the first in a series of posts drawn from our archive. We are working on digitizing and integrating materials like artist records, photos, correspondence, video + audio files, notes and pieces of art into our website, and along the way our archivist Molly will be pulling out some extra-special items to share with us. First up is the ever-enchanting James Turrell, who was featured in the cover story of this week's The New York Times Magazine: 


Way back in the early 1980s, when the Pac-Man, Dallas, and astronaut Sally Ride absorbed the attention of the nation, the Mattress Factory was in its formative stage. Experimental theater companies performed on the first floor, a dance studio occupied the third floor, and the 500 Sampsonia Way building buzzed with sculptors, weavers, and photographers coming and going from the studios that occupied all six floors. In those days the museum, which had yet to dedicate itself completely to installation and performance work, rented its extra rooms to artists seeking studio space.

 Mattress Factory flier, circa 1980
Mattress Factory third floor dance studio, circa 1980  
artist studio, Mattress Factory, circa 1980
I love thinking about the museum during this period and imagining how the principles that guide the Mattress Factory today were beginning to take root. When word began to circulate about an amazing exhibition being held at the Whitney Museum of American Art, founder and co-director Barbara and co-director Michael decided to call the artist up. Just like that. Recalling the episode in a 2002 interview Barbara states:
I think I made some smart remark like, "Well, now that you've had a show at the Whitney, you have to have a show at the Mattress Factory." He said, "Fine." And so it happened that the nascent Mattress Factory museum brought James Turrell, one of contemporary art's leading stars and visionaries, to Pittsburgh. Looking back on that phone call now, it marks a significant turning point in the history of the museum--a moment when the ideas, energy, and entrepreneurial spirit coalesced to set in motion the creation of the museum we know today as the Mattress Factory.

James Turrell exhibition brochure, front cover
The three (Barbara, Michael and Turrell) met up on a street corner in New York City (vaguely recalled today as somewhere in Tribeca), piled into a cab, and made arrangements for Turrell to come to the Mattress Factory to make an artwork. It is likely that Turrell had no knowledge of the Mattress Factory when he agreed to the exhibit; there had only been three previous shows at that point and the artists were mostly from the Pittsburgh community. Asked later why he agreed so readily, he said that there was "just something there--a sense of trust about doing the show."




James Turrell exhibition brochure, 1983

In our next installment, we'll dig through some archival video of Turrell at the Mattress Factory, watch as the friendship between the museum and the artist takes root, and peer back into the Pittsburgh art scene of the time.


POSTED BY MOLLY
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Categories: Museum [Tech] Blogs + Stuff

SUMMER @ MF: COMMUNITY ARTLABS + FACTORY 14s

Do you know any 7-18 year olds that love art and are looking for a unique art experience? The Mattress Factory has an exciting line-up of summer workshops! In the spirit of the Mattress Factory, these interactive workshops are experimental, collaborative, and immersive. Students work with practicing artists and spend time in the museum and its installations.

Community ArtLab is for students ages 7-13, and there are ArtLab workshops to suit a variety of art making preferences:

Puppet Insiders with Cheryl Capezutti
July 8-19, 9am-noon
Working with visual artist and puppeteer Cheryl Capezutti, students ages 10-13 are invited to design and build their own mixed-media puppets. Capezutti explains, "Participants will design and build their own small hand and rod puppet in a miniature installation, as well as a giant, full-bodied puppet to interact with the existing Mattress Factory installations in some way. Intrigued? Join the fun!"

Mammoth, Monstrous, Massive Sculptures with John Pena
July 8-19, 1-4pm
Working with multidisciplinary artist and educator John Pena, students ages 10-13 are invited to an "explosively entertaining workshop!"  Pena continues, "We will attempt to create a huge sculpture that can only be activated through our combined efforts...Will we make a gigantic shark that we inhabit and control from inside its massive cardboard body? Or will we recreate a microscopic organism that can only be seen by our giant microscope?" Brainstorming, building, performing, and subsequent exhibiting (which may include a parade) will be collaborative.


Fes-toon*ing Brings Us Together with Maria Molteni
July 15-18, 6-8pm
Working with multimedia and performing artist Maria Molteni, students ages 7-12 and their parents/guardians are invited to a series of workshops experimenting with the concept of the Festoon. To investigate and celebrate this playful, basic form, participants will use their bodies, words, and other creative materials. Participants will explore topics ranging from "entomology (the study of insects) to electricity, etymology (the study of words) to ornamentation...participants will be sure to outgrow their thinking caps!"
 
Make It, Jump It, Stomp It, Eat It with Heather White
July 22-August 2, 9am-noon
Working with artist and educator Heather White, students ages 7-9 are invited to experiment with various materials in situational performances. White explains, "This class is for kids who have a lot of energy, are excited to experiment with new materials, and love to work with others...we will create obstacle courses, snack buffets, silkscreened fashions, collaborative zines, and much, MUCH more!" White is an artist who has taught printmaking, art history, drawing, installation, design, and art as activism. She brings this passionate interdisciplinary spirit to her workshop, and she anticipates using the Mattress Factory's exhibitions, visiting artists, playgrounds and parks nearby, and classmates as parts of experiments.

 



Factory 14s is for 14-18 year olds, and gives students an opportunity to work on portfolio-quality pieces, be introduced to new materials and methods, meet staff and local artists, and create an installation at the Mattress Factory.

Constructing Bodies & Moving Images with Anna Brewer + Jessica Rommelt
July 22 - August 9, 1-4pm
Working with visual artists Anna Brewer and Jessica Rommelt, students ages 14-18 are invited to experiment with installation art. Students will be encouraged to experiment with different media (drawing, sculpture, and video) to help them work through their ideas. Anna and Jessica will introduce sculptural building and casting techniques, basic camera control and editing. They will also facilitate brainstorming for the group's installation in the Mattress Factory. Students' creative processes will be similar to the ways the artists-in-residence work. This is a great opportunity for interested teenagers to make art in new ways, meet local artists, and showcase their work in a world-class contemporary art museum!





On August 9th there will be a showcase of all the summer's experiments called, "The Celebration." This exciting exhibition is a time for the students to show off the work they have created in the classes. They can see what other students have been working on, and invite their family and friends to see the Mattress Factory. There will be snacks, some hands-on activities, and potentially some student-generated performances and parades!

To find out more information regarding costs and details for Community ArtLab, check out our website. For more information regarding costs and details for Factory 14s, click here. Please note that several scholarships are available. To find out more and to register please contact Felice Cleveland at felice[at]mattress[dot]org or 412.231.3169 ext. 213.

Categories: Museum [Tech] Blogs + Stuff

SHOP MF: Dead Bury Dead

One of the best parts about my job as Shop Manager is selecting fun and well-designed items for museum visitors to bring home with them. We carry products from all over the world, but many items are made right here in Pittsburgh! One of my favorite local vendors is Dead Bury Dead: Dead Bury Dead shirts are incredibly soft and many styles are crafted from organic cotton. They are designed and printed here in our city. 

From DBD’s website: 
Dead Bury Dead is a lifestyle brand for the living. For barflies and wallflowers and outlaws and astronauts and hustlers and lumberjacks and poets and barbarians and sleepwalkers. And for people without labels. Without limits. // Do what you do, and do so in style and comfort. Dead Bury Dead is clothing for the soul. A stark reminder. Every day. That life is a gift. And as moments pass, they are dead and buried. Have the best day of your life. Today. // And as long as you live. Death shall have no dominion.






Watch Dead Bury Dead's video on Vimeo:


 
DeadBuryDead Freedom from DeadBuryDead on Vimeo.



POSTED BY SAM
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SCREENINGS: Carrie Schneider, Reading Women

The sixth and final installment of Screenings is up in the lobby through May 23. The exhibiting artist for the next two weeks is photographer Carrie Schneider. Based in Brooklyn, New York, Schneider created the video, Reading Women, a work in progress of 50 women reading books written by female authors. 


I was able to snag Exhibitions Manager Owen Smith to get his thoughts on Schneider’s work, and also some closing sentiments on Screenings.
CAITLIN HARPSTER: Carrie Schneider works primarily in photography, so video work is a relatively new exploration for her. How do you think she did?

OWEN SMITH: I wanted a still photographer for one of the screenings because I wanted to see what they would do. Carrie is a photographer, yes, but what she really is doing is studying a subject, almost in an anthropological kind of way. She is the only person I know who has been to every neighborhood of Pittsburgh and photographed it. She has been working on this great photographic series of houses--88--in Pittsburgh that documents the identical underlying structures, along with how the houses have been personalized over the years and now appear very different with their own rich social history.

She approached Reading Women in a similarly rigorous way. She documented the women reading in multiple ways. She had an idea of something she wanted to study but was unsure of the final form. She has been taking photographs of the women as well as video documentation. This is something she has been working on for a very long time. It is a work in progress.

CH: How did she determine how long to focus on one women over the next?

OS: The reason for the length of each clip is one page-turn. So it depends on what they are reading and how they are reading. It’s a very structural concept of editing, which pairs nicely with the photographic series Hands. You see the photographs of the hands of the women and the way each woman holds the book. There is a complimentary body of work with this video. Carrie is exploring multiple ways of how to document and present one single subject.  I like her practice.  It is a very thorough, almost scientific type of practice.

CH: Reading Women is kind of like a series of portraits.

OS: They are always portraits. Even when she was documenting the houses for 88, that was a form of portraiture. The high art of portraiture is not just depicting the likeness of a person or thing, but capturing the personality within it. I think that is what she is really trying to explore, what creates the personality of each woman. She is showing us not only how each woman is reading, but what she chose to read as well. The idea is that you are getting a portrait of this person in her own kind of head-space, where she feels completely engaged and unaware, empowered almost, while reading her favorite book by a female author. Coincidentally, Carrie’s work pairs very nicely with our Feminist And… exhibition.

CH: This is the last work in Screenings. Overall, how do you feel about the screenings and how they were received?

OS: I was really happy with it all and would like to do another screening series again in the future. I was really excited with the variety of works produced. It has been really lovely working on this project and I think everyone involved really enjoyed doing it as well. I wanted the idea of the “gesture” to act as a guideline for artists to produce something that was a little bit of a sketch, something quick, or challenge them to show something that were not necessarily prepared to do, like how Carrie showed a work in progress.

CH: I also feel that the “gesture” shows the viewer a different perspective on the working artist. For example, the work Tzarinas of the Plane exhibited, Meditation on the Making of Madness, which actually incorporated their artistic process as part of their video.

OS: Yes, their work became kind of documentary. It is such a wide open field of things that can happen and it has been nice to be able to give artists a space and a little bit of time and a little bit of a goal to do something with.

Overall, it has been a lot of fun.  There is a little bit of “the art of the exhibition” that I might change or do differently in the future that might benefit the artist but I am really amazed and grateful that so many people put so much effort and dedication into this series.





POSTED BY CAITLIN
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FEMINIST AND . . . Ayanah Moor

 
It seems no matter how  I try I become more difficult  to hold  I am not an easy woman  to want [1]
             


The walls of Ayanah Moor’s exhibit are papered in words, like the ones above, silk-screened on newsprint in deep reds and browns. They draw observers into the cross-section between race and gender, to somewhere between “a hard woman to love” and “my melanin is relevant.”
Moor’s by and about incorporates the language of poets and emcees, references ranging from Billie Holiday to dream hampton to the musings of Nikki Giovanni’s “Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day.” ­Moor pulls these fragments and phrases together into a unifying grid of silkscreened letters on everyday newsprint.

In Moor’s own words, “My work explores the way popular culture is an articulation of our desires, our fears, our fantasies. It can both reflect and impact the things we want, which is a fascinating cycle.” [2]

[1] http://www.afropoets.net/nikkigiovanni5.html [2] http://www.cmu.edu/homepage/creativity/2009/fall/ayanah-moor.shtml



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SCREENINGS: Matthew Biederman, 8-bit Meta-matic

For the fifth installment of the Mattress Factory’s Screenings, Matthew Biederman created 8-bit Méta-matic, an in-situ, digital work projected directly onto our own curtain in the lobby. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to ask Biederman a few questions about his work.




CAITLIN HARPSTER: Your body of work, while maintaining a very apparent Matthew Biederman vibe, also reflects a lot of different influences. Could you give our readers an idea of the thought progressions behind the way you create your works?

MATTHEW BIEDERMAN: In terms of influences, while I've always thought that art history is absolutely crucial to know, I'd have to say that I don't have a specific set of influences that I have followed. I think what happens, in terms of doing research, is I end up following threads—within art, within science, within politics and philosophy—and together with their histories, and my own, they tend to point to a direction to explore. Naming a particular artist, or movement without discussing the politics and sciences etc. of the time does not necessarily do justice to the work or the artist either. I just finished reading Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood by James Gleick and it was pretty mind blowing in terms of reflecting upon the today’s information glut. I guess there is so much out there to be influenced by that it all gets mixed up together. That said, however, the biggest impact always comes from collaborators and colleagues that I've worked with in the past. I've managed to build some really great relationships through those processes.

CH: Our readers, like myself, most likely will not have much of an understanding of the process/coding/technological things you do and incorporate into your work. If you could perhaps explain a simplified version of how your piece at the Mattress Factory works and how you created it?

MB: I like to think that these programs, pieces of code, are simply a set of rules for the work to follow to 'be' the art. In effect it’s no different than the Fluxus pieces which consist of rules for a person to follow. Except here, the computer follows the rules rather than a performer or participant. For 8-bit Méta-matic, the rules are as follows: 1. Pick a direction and draw; 2. The drawing surface is disturbed and pulled up/down and left/right; 3. If there is a mark on the edge of the disturbance, stretch those pixels in the direction of the movement; 4. And the most important rule is that if the drawing takes place over another mark already there, invert it. So if the mark is white, it turns to black and vice versa. And of course when the image is nearly full, it resets to black and starts over again.

CH: This series is based on the idea that the videos/works submitted are “gestural.” How does your work exemplify a gesture?

MB: Well, what is a gesture? A quick mark on the page done without thinking too much about it. So I think for this work I interpret the gesture as the way the computer decides where to draw next, which is completely random. In this way, each moment is unique to the piece. Each moment can be perceived as a series of gestures to create the whole—it’s just that the gesture in this case is not a human one. The gestures are created by the computer acting within the set of rules that I have defined. What exactly happens is left somehow to chance, or in this specific case, it is a bit of chance and then acting on what came before it (i.e. what 'marks' are already there).

CH: Why did you choose to project the video on to the white curtain versus the projection screen?

MB: It has to do with the way I understand the Mattress Factory albeit as an outsider, and I see that the Mattress Factory is an integral part of the community, which means to me that people in Pittsburgh have an intimate relationship with the space and place. They have been in that space in the past, and I assume have seen that curtain there in the lobby, so I thought it would be great to just have something appear on/in it, to use the space as it is. So I set out to design the movement and the drawing to happen upon the curtain—the undulations add another layer to the composition, and the material naturally softens the hard edges of the images. The way it scatters the light I like to think of in the same way paint might drip, or ink bleeds (especially when considering where some of my ideas are at right now in terms of making new media works). I'm very interested in the moment when 'new media' can be curated alongside 'traditional' visual art forms, and I think it is slowly starting to happen. Since the advent of powerful consumer accessible computers and affordable projection and flat displays, I believe we have gotten to point where new media works can be shown alongside of painting and sculpture. It's important to consider the computer and code within the trajectory of art as a whole rather than subjugating it to its own ghetto as in the past, or even today I still see 'new media' or 'data centric' shows which I prefer would just merge with well considered curated exhibitions, but this is its own thesis...

CH: You mention in your artist statement that this work is inspired by Jean Tinguely’s mechanical generative drawing machines. Could you elaborate on this a little bit?

MB: I had the pleasure of going to his museum in Basel and discovering his work for the first time there, and ever since, I've been a huge fan of what he has done. Specifically, these automatic drawing machines to me were very interesting as they sort of poked fun at the art establishment while asking some important questions all the while looking (and sounding) very beautiful. I think that often times, when the audience is confronted with a projection or video based work they are looking for some sort of narrative or structure to follow, so I tend to use titles as a hint at how to understand the work (this time with a computer nerd reference and an art history nerd reference). Structurally, I see the way that the underlying software functions the same way that his machine functions—by using disturbances, this time in the way that the surface of the drawing system functions. It creates what in the past an error looked like. In a similar way, his original Méta-matic(s) would produce different drawings through their wonky mechanics, which to an engineer would look like an error. I guess here it is important to note that I am not trained as a computer programmer, or engineer. Everything I've learned has been more or less self-taught through trial and error. I don't really produce 'rendered' or 'recorded' works that are identical each time they are displayed. I just get bored of seeing the same thing over and over again, especially after I have slaved over each bit of minute detail. So why not build systems that can continue to surprise myself as well as someone who comes to see it?

CH: You also talked about how Tinguely questioned the idea of authorship. You are using your work’s “glitches” to create the final product. Thus, instead of questioning the authorship, are you are attempting to control it by creating something new out of the work’s imperfections?

MB: I think authorship is very important when considering what is created using computer tools. I use my albeit limited knowledge of programming, even though I have been doing it for twenty or so years in some fashion, I can look to so many other artists who are much more skilled than I am when it comes to coding complex systems. However I do all my own programming in these works, and I feel it is crucially important to do so. I'm a bit of a romantic in that way and for me that means that I, as the artist and author of the work, can only produce that work through an intimate knowledge of the material and the medium (which in this case is not only software, but the mechanics of projection and space) in the same way a painter knows oil or watercolors and how to mix and apply it to a surface. Without all the parts of getting your hands dirty in code or in paint or whatever the medium, then how do you know what might be possible? It’s an organic way of working. So if Jean Tinguely was asking about authorship in the artifact(s) created by his machines, I am asking about authorship within a system—this work in particular is set up to draw in a certain way that I never could predict how it might turn out. So in this way, myself, the computer, the projector and the curtain are the authors in some fashion.

CH: Some of your works rely heavily on sound as an integral element of the work (see Physical and Pulse), often times aiding in altering one’s perception of the work. Contrarily, you have several silent works as well (see R+G+B and Tetrachroma). Why do you choose to incorporate sound or omit it in your works? What impact do you hope 8-bit Méta-matic has as a silent work?

MB: Going back to influences, one of the artists I worked for, Jim Campbell, had said something to me once in passing, that he always decided that whatever he put into a work better have a very good reason for being there, down to the smallest details. For instance, the choice to use color over monochromatic images. When I incorporate audio into a work it immediately takes on a huge set of other implications spatially, perceptually, and historically. So it really was just one choice of many that this work is silent. I want the work to reflect the fact that it is a drawing. To add sound would suddenly give another dimension to a 3-D work (x,y and time), and frankly I feel it would detract from the focus of the piece. I try to heed those early thoughts of don't just add it because you can, because when you start dealing with new media, where do you stop then?

Matthew Biederman is an American artist based in Montreal. Biederman’s art explores ideas of perception, aesthetics, media saturation and data systems in our world today. He is the co-director of the San Francisco Television Access, and co-founded the Arctic Perspective Initiative (API), which promotes the creation of open authoring, communications and dissemination infrastructures for the circumpolar region. Biederman is also a resident at Carnegie Mellon University’s CREATE lab.
 
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KATE MILTENBERGER, Development Intern

Extra-Curricular Interests: rock climbing, school, books  

Artists in heavy rotation: The Decemberists, Bastille, Ellie Goulding, Kimbra, Broken Bells 

Two Things to a Deserted Island: a hammock and a book (possibly an e-reader with lots of books?!) 

Dinner with one person from history: Leo Tolstoy. He was Russian, wrote amazing books, and basically invented his own form of Christianity. That's some really great dinner conversation, if you ask me.

One more thing: I love the Legend of Zelda video games!


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SCREENINGS: T. Foley, Cone of Shamelessness

T. Foley is the artist behind the fourth installment of Screenings here at the Mattress Factory. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to interview Foley about her life, work and inspirations, and of course, her most recent work, Cone of Shamelessness, created specifically for the Mattress Factory.
CAITLIN HARPSTER:  Could you give us a brief history about yourself and how you have come to create the work that you do? 
T. FOLEY:  As long as I can remember, I’ve been an observer—this led me to begin writing short fiction in high school, and to major in English in college. Eventually I found that delivering stories to audiences (through print media and at readings) did not feel satisfying. In filmmaking school, I began to use actions, rather than words, to express my creativity, and that felt good. 
CH:  In Cone of Shamelessness you used your cell phone and a webcam to create the footage we see. Are you using technology as a mediator to connect with your viewers, by bringing it down to a relatable, local, low-tech, social media, texting level? 
TF:  I like home movies, so using the Web camera and iPhone--technology which many people have access to--made sense to me. The movie is very intimate—shot in our home, made with our dog.  It’s also a little love poem to our new dog. Intuitively, I was probably trying to balance my reactions to her being in that cone. Some of her regular gestures appeared hilarious to me, as in the shadow dog walking scene, when she looks like some kind of space monkey. I also sympathized with her frustrations (when she had an itch behind the cone, she was not able to scratch it).  
I have other work that is about accessing technology—specifically my public art/original ringtone creation project, Locally Toned. Through it, I work with others to capture the sounds that are interesting or important to them in a particular environment, and then I share the sounds as ringtones, free of charge, at locallytoned.org. 
CH:  I also feel the ‘low-tech’ quality of the video aids to it being more of a ‘gesture’ as well, which  Screenings is loosely based on. How did you interpret Cone of Shamelessness as a gesture? 
TF:  When figuring out what make for Screenings, I thought about the prompt to do “gestural” or “spontaneous” video sketches. So I wanted to keep things really simple in terms of technology and process. I also worked by myself, like William Wegman did in his early videos with his dogs in the studio. 
CH:  A lot of your works exude a sense of humor—personifying blow-up dolls, animalizing yourself, ventriloquism, etc. Is humor an element that you tend to utilize often in your works? 
TF:  I’m very inspired by comedy. As a tween and teen, I loved Saturday Night Live’s short films, and acts by Albert Brooks and Andy Kaufmann. Later I admired early performance videos by William Wegman and Miranda July. This past year I’ve developed more awareness as a comedic performer. I did a thematic residency last fall (with about 20 other artists) called Experimental Comedy Training Camp at The Banff Centre. We had come up with new, live performances every week, for seven weeks, and although it was really stressful it gave me the chance to try things outside my comfort zone. Before I went to Camp, after moving to Los Angeles last summer, I took a class at the Groundlings School—the West Coast improv program with alumni like Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig and Paul Reubens.
In licence, the blow-up doll movie, and in Cone of Shamelessness, I improvise scenarios that let me re-imagine the world. A blow-up doll is usually a sex object, but I teach her how to roller skate, sing, and drive a car. A ventriloquist dummy is a puppet meant to speak in public, but mine has selective mutism (he never speaks in public). He messages with others live, on Chatroulette, and re-does famous works of performance art (like Vito Acconci’s Seedbed). 
CH:  I know that one of the stipulations for this series was that the video be silent. How did this help shape your work, if at all? To me, it made for a more direct parallel between you and your dog. Dogs cannot talk, therefore the viewer is left to fill in the silence with their own thoughts of what you/your dog could be thinking. 
TF:  Yes, I thought about the fact that it was going to be silent. I pictured surveillance, live text-chat, or “choreography of motion” scenarios. I love the early films from the late 1800s by the Lumiere Brothers and Edison, so I was thinking in terms of an action simply unfolding before the camera.
About dogs not being able to talk -- that’s true! I often feel frustrated that I cannot tell Cousin Violet [the name of Foley's dog], “We’ll be back,” when she’s experiencing separation anxiety, or that I can’t say anything she’ll understand or be comforted by when she’s frustrated. Something like, “That cone won’t be on forever; it’s helping you to get better.”
T. Foley is an artist living and working in Los Angeles.  She received her BA in English at Duquesne University, and studied film, digital media and video at Pittsburgh Filmmakers as an independent student. Check out T. Foley’s work, Cone of Shamelessness, screening in the lobby through April 25, 2013. 


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MOLLY TIGHE, Archivist

Extra-Curricular Interests: 
Traveling here, traveling there, going on hikes with water features, cooking with ingredients I've never used before (sometimes successfully), and practicing every preparatory yoga pose in the book that can help me be able to sit in a full lotus position...someday

What artists are currently in heavy rotation on your iPod?
Rachmaninoff, Grateful Dead (`76 and the late `89 are my favorite years of late), Granddaddy, Astrud Gilberto, and a compilation of pre-revolution Iranian pop

If you could bring two things with you to a deserted island, what would they be?
My husband and a bottle of the highest SPF waterproof sun block available

If you could have dinner with one person from history, who would it be and why?
Sri K. Pattabhi Jois. Or, if she would have the patience to help me with a few of my sewing questions, then I'd love to have dinner and chat with Coco Chanel.

One more thing we should know about you:
I had my wedding at the Mattress Factory!



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CAITLIN HARPSTER, Education Intern

Extracurricular Activities:
I loveeee going to local shows, running through the cemetery, painting, printing and crafting of all sorts (if I ever find the time)

What artists are currently in heavy rotation on your iPod?
I do not have an iPod, but in my six-disc CD changer in my car, I have the albums: Citizen Cope, MGMT, First Aid Kit, The Gaslight Anthem, The Lumineers, and M. Ward.
If you could bring two things with you to a deserted island, what would they be?
I'm going to have to take the practical route on this one and say matches and a knife. I'm not much of a MacGyver.

If you could have dinner with one person from history, who would it be and why?
It would have to be Gerhard Richter, my all-time favorite artist.  I like to think we would be really good friends.

One more thing we should know about you:
You should know that I am addicted to road trips!
 
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Our CLASSy Volunteers

Every other Thursday, a special group of volunteers visits the Mattress Factory. They're all participants in the day program at United Cerebral Palsy/Community Living and Support Services (UCP/CLASS). UCP/CLASS serves people with a wide range of disabilities who live in Allegheny County, offering programs that build on individual strengths and promote inclusion in the community. Day program participants volunteer at Veteran's hospitals, offices, and nonprofits in our community, and luckily, we're one of the stops for some art-loving volunteers.

Sherry Johnson and George Ryden visit us every other week with their enthusiastic program coordinator, Teresa Martuccio, and sometimes bring along new volunteers who have heard how much fun they have and want to see the museum for themselves. Our UCP participants help with any number of tasks: they stuff folders, they unwrap and prepare materials for installation, they staple our exhibition guides - and most importantly, they fill our lobby with cheer and joy. They love the museum as much as the staff, and like all of our volunteers, they're an important part of the MF family.

Not only do Sherry and George volunteer their time for the museum, they both create art through UCP's art classes. Sherry is a sweet, gentle woman who loves color - her favorite is purple, although she's told me that there isn't a color that she doesn't like. George is a sunny and energetic young man who loves sports, especially the Pirates. Both of them are enthusiastic artists, and you can even buy their work here at the MF - we sell greeting cards in the shop featuring Sherry and George's paintings.

Working with volunteers is one of the best parts of my job as Visitor Services Coordinator, and UCP's visits are a highlight in my week. It's a joy and a privilege to work with individuals who give back to their communities and are as passionate about art and the museum's mission as we are.

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Art Lab: Derek Reese

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Every first and third Saturday of the month from 1 to 4 p.m., the Mattress Factory offers Art Lab, an interactive and hands-on creative session ideal for individuals and families with children of all ages. Art Lab is free with admission and projects are developed to complement our current exhibitions and permanent collection, so please feel free to check out our galleries before or after Art Lab!
The Art Lab experience for the participant is representative of the creative processes of the artists at the Mattress Factory. It is a space intended for creative experimentation, where ideas can grow and foster. Art Lab is a liberating space for everyone to have the opportunity to get lost in his or her own creative process.
This Saturday, March 16, Art Lab: Wonder Bred will be hosted by artist and museum educator Derek Reese. Derek’s own artworks explore common themes of identity through the use and experimentation of materials.  One question visitors can explore is, “How does the place you are from influence who you are?” By viewing and interacting with Derek’s works, visitors will be invited to reflect upon their own background (whether it be cultural, genealogical, geographical, etc.) and create their own works of art by using unconventional materials. As a working artist himself, we asked Derek to relate the Mattress Factory’s Art Labs to his own creative processes as an artist. This is what Derek had to say:
I think that Art Lab has the potential to be an actual laboratory where the artist begins a test, or asks a question and the visitors, guided by the artist, continues the conversation or the experiment. Experimentation is key. Through participating in Art Lab, I hope that Mattress Factory visitors get a sense of what the art making process is like for a professional artist, such as the artists with work being exhibited upstairs in the galleries. I would like everyone to see how important and rewarding that experimenting, playing and creating can be.
Join us this Saturday, March 16, for Art Lab: Wonder Bred and perform your own artistic experiment with Derek Reese!
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SAM DITCH, Museum Shop Manager

Extra-Curricular Interests:
Thrifting, making things, reading sci-fi books, and collecting vinyl records

What artists are currently in heavy rotation on your iPod?
T. Rex, Devendra Banhart, Ian & Sylvia, The Incredible String Band, & Los Destellos

If you could bring two things with you to a deserted island, what would they be?
My library of books (that counts as one right?!) and a water purification system

If you could have dinner with one person from history, who would it be and why?
Rachel Carson, because I would love to hear her thoughts and suggestions on where we are headed today

One more thing we should know about you:
I can often be found hula-hooping to Peruvian Cumbia in my tiny backyard.

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