Mattress Factory | Weblog

Artist & Curator Harvest Talk

2009-11-05T13:55:00.006-05:00

Naturally, the thing I look forward to most during a run of an exhibition here at the Mattress Factory is the educational programming my department produces. Through workshops, lectures, outreach events and artist/school partnerships, I love helping create opportunities that connect MF artists with the public and programs that encourage viewers to consider the relevance of art & creativity in their own lives. The next such event will take place this Saturday, November 7, here at the museum.

I invite you to join Gestures 13 curator Katherine Talcott and exhibiting artists Stephanie Armbruster, Jeremy Boyle, Jonny Farringdon, Nayda Collazo-Llorens, Amanda Long, Lindsay O'Leary, Drew Pavelchak, The Urban Gardner & Dror Yaron for an evening of artistic discussion and fall harvest treats. There will be a guided tour of the exhibition at 6:00PM and the discussion will begin at 7:00PM. Admission is $10, but as always: MF members, PITT + CMU Students are FREE with I.D. I hope to see you Saturday evening!

POSTED BY ANNA
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Give Twice this Holiday Season

2009-10-27T15:42:00.004-04:00

This is the first post from Catena Bergevin, Director of Operations here at the Mattress Factory. Catena has worked for the museum for more than 5 years and is responsible for making sure everything here at the MF runs smoothly. She is also dedicated to ensuring the sustainability of the Mattress Factory's earned income lines of business, which include museum admissions & membership, the MF Shop & BoxSpring Café and facilities rentals.

Hello MF Blog readers! For my first blog post, I thought I'd focus on the amazing mission and people that make the Mattress Factory run smoothly each day. I'd also like to highlight some special initiatives we have cooking for the holiday season. I know, I can't believe the holidays are right around the corner either! Where did the time go?

Certainly, the holiday season fills each of us with a renewed "spirit of giving." Well, that is a year-round mantra here at the the Mattress Factory. During the almost half-dozen years I've been working here, I have seen MF staff go far beyond what is written in their job description. From visitor services staff to building maintenance, each face of the MF believes strongly in our mission and works diligently to support the art. Many of our staff members are artists themselves or volunteer for other arts organizations. They truly bring the spirit of giving an inspirational meaning.

Did you know that museum visitors and our friends from afar can also give back to the MF in a variety of ways? This might surprise you, but the museum relies heavily on earned money (i.e. paid admissions, shop and cafe revenue, membership, etc.). Approximately 30% of the MF's operating budget comes from earned income. My passion here has always involved finding ways to realize the museum's earning potential. (Not to mention that I absolutely adore retail!) In 2005 we opened the MF Shop and in 2006 the Boxspring Café. We also expanded our facility rental business with the addition of a full time Event Coordinator.

So this holiday season, we're launching the GIVE TWICE initiative. Each and every purchase, not only gets you something truly awesome (and by awesome, we mean MF awesome), but it also helps the Mattress Factory provide artists-in-residence with unparalleled support in creating new installations at the museum. So whether it is a new MF logo shirt, a green membership, a cup of soup, or a place to hold your next cocktail party, please consider supporting the Mattress Factory with your purchasing this holiday season!

SHOP + EAT + JOIN + CELEBRATE = ART!

POSTED BY CATENA
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LIKENESS Video Series: Jonn Herschend

2009-10-23T08:40:00.001-04:00

Today's installment in the LIKENESS Video Series (produced with love by MF Danny) comes from Jonn Herschend, an interdisciplinary artist, curator and experimental publisher preoccupied with how emotional confusion, absurdity and veracity play out in the realm of the everyday. He lives and works in San Francisco, and is the co-founder and co-editor, along with Will Rogan, of the experimental publication THE THING. Jonn was raised in a mid-western theme park in the Ozarks that his grandfather started. Later it was run by his father and uncle. Both of his parents were street performers and when Jonn was born, a sign was placed in his parents’ front yard that read, “Home of Jonn Herschend, future train robber.” According to Jonn that sign is still around.

JONN HERSCHEND
Self Portrait as a PowerPoint Proposal for an Amusement Park Ride (2009)
projector, DVD player, self-running PowerPoint presentation, projection screen, leak in ceiling, buckets, plastic sheets, janitor closet, custodial items, 16 mm. projector with looper, portable projection screen
LIKENESS Exhibition - Through March 21, 2010

Herschend’s many-sided conceptual, Self Portrait as a PowerPoint Proposal for an Amusement Park Ride, is characterized by a strong sense of narrative, not strictly limited to straightforward vignettes or mimetic representation. In his complex self-portrait one finds a narrative that resembles fantasy, role-playing, fiction and a touch of reality. Jonn’s choice of subjects and materials contribute to the kind of story he opts to tell and show his audience. Jonn says about this piece:

The entire installation is a self-portrait...not one part. It’s both sides of the entertainment experience... the fantasy of the gallery and the hidden reality. It goes from the conceptual notion of a museum installation, to a disruption with the physical space (the leak in the ceiling), to a hidden and nostalgic projection of a true moment of complete innocence.

This is the first time I’ve ever really worked on a piece that referenced my affiliation with the amusement park of my past. For me, museums and galleries are very similar to amusement parks. They are where we come to experience a diversion from the real world. And we expect things to be a certain way.

From a formal aspect, the PowerPoint projection (an application used to supposedly make confusing issues clear) becomes bogged down and sidetracked with the introduction of an illicit affair and car wreck.

The black and white slides are spilling over with emotion, just as the physical building is failing and starting to leak. But in the Janitor’s closet, a place that is not formally on the map of a museum or gallery, the 16 mm projection is a translation of a moment (a true moment) where I recorded my daughter experiencing an amusement park ride with full and complete innocent joy (at the amusement park where I grew up). I wanted to transfer and translate the moment to a medium associated with memory and nostalgia.”

POSTED BY JEFFREY
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LIKENESS Video Series: Paul DeMarinis

2009-10-21T13:38:00.004-04:00

Today's installment in the LIKENESS Video Series (produced with love by MF Danny) comes from Paul DeMarinis, an artist who has been working in electronic media since 1971. Much of his work involves speech processed and synthesized by computers. In his LIKENESS piece, Dust, Paul utilizes a diverse selection of materials to create a unique and moving experience.

PAUL DeMARINIS
Dust, 2009 (4th Floor)
computer, video projector, photoluminescent powder, bass speaker
LIKENESS Exhibition - Through March 21, 2010

Paul DeMarinis has been working in the arts for several decades and subsequently has produced numerous performance works, sound and computer installations, as well as interactive electronic inventions. DeMarinis’s subtle and magical works display an intersection of tradition and progress, often motivated to cover an expanse of subjects and themes. Today we hear the term multidisciplinary! It is indeed an accurate one to describe Paul DeMarinis. Although the majority of his productions fall within the realm of art, he is also a historian, an experimenter, a chemist, a physicist, an engineer, a programmer, an inventor, a computer scientist and an archaeologist. His cross-disciplinary approach affords him an aptitude to condense the many facets of technology into his art constructions that aspire to be concurrently comprehensible and philosophical.

In his new work, Dust, DeMarinis explores facial similarities, pairs of faces, and the abstraction of images into the dust. DeMarinis presents a fragment of this collection of likeness-pairs, scanned sequentially into the light-memory of phosphorescent powder. After a few minutes of exposure to the projected image, the powder retains a faint green image of the two faces on its surface, something akin to the ‘latent image’ of photographic film or the veil of memory. Unlike photographic film, though, the image starts to distort. Propelled by low frequency sound vibrations, the powder starts to flow and dance, first distorting the faces and erasing their likeness, then distorting them into patterns of abstract light in motion, with form and beauty all its own. (Excerpt from Elaine A. King's gallery guide for LIKENESS)

POSTED BY JEFFREY
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LIKENESS Video Series: Jim Campbell

2009-10-20T11:23:00.003-04:00

Today's installment in the LIKENESS Video Series (produced with love by MF Danny) comes from artist Jim Campbell. Jim has two pieces showing in the LIKENESS exhibition, one of which you see below (Liz Walking: A Distillation Portrait) and the other will be posted here on the MF blog later in the week. Both make use of custom electronics and LED lighting. In Liz Walking, Jim has transformed an entire gallery into a lo-fi projection screen. To shine a bit more light on Jim's creative process, I've included some text from curator Elaine A. King's gallery guide below the embedded video.

JIM CAMPBELL
Liz Walking: A Distillation Portrait, 2009 (4th Floor)
custom electronics, LEDs
LIKENESS Exhibition - Through March 21, 2010

Liz Walking: A Distillation Portrait develops out of Jim Campbell's earlier Motion and Rest series that depicts six studies of people with disabilities walking. The idea underlying this series was that the low-resolution process inherently eliminates everything about the walking figures except for their gait. According to Campbell, "the works (or medium) distill the movement of the figures eliminating all of the other information from the moving images (age, clothes, gender, hair style etc. cannot be determined from the representations)."

This work goes further, when at times it eliminates the entire image including the movement such that only the rhythm of the movement is left leaving an even simpler representation. The installation is set up so that at the front of the room is a low-resolution image of the figure, but concurrently the two side walls (on either side of the viewer as they are looking at the front wall) have the same moving image presented in a great deal, lower resolution to the point of being almost totally abstract. However since the sidewalls are taken in with peripheral vision (which is also inherently movement based and more unconscious based) the rhythm of the figure is felt from the viewer’s peripheral vision as it is seen on the front wall with the observer’s direct vision. A unique situation is presented since the viewer’s peripheral vision is actually observing the same thing that the straight-ahead vision is seeing. Lastly, as a type of facilitation process for the viewer to leave their analytical seeing process behind, this installation goes through a cycle where the higher resolution image on the front wall gradually fades to nothing (a flat field) leaving only the peripheral image rhythm to be felt for a few moments before the front image gradually fades up again—what remains is a movement portrait or signature. (Excerpt from Elaine A. King's gallery guide for LIKENESS)

POSTED BY JEFFREY
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LIKENESS Video Series: Tony Oursler

2009-10-19T16:43:00.002-04:00

On Friday, October 9th, nearly 300 people packed into the galleries for the concurrent openings of LIKENESS, a group show guest-curated by Elaine A. King, and It's all about ME, Not You by Greer Lankton, which has been added to the museum's permanent collection. Big thanks to all who attended. I'm always amazed at the consistent outpouring of support at MF openings.

In anticipation of receiving and posting the official LIKENESS documentation images from our photographer, I'll be uploading short videos produced by Danny Bracken, multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire and MF Exhibitions Team member. First up in the series is Tony Oursler's Vampiric Battle.

On deck for tomorrow: Jim Campbell's Liz Walking (A Distillation Portrait)

POSTED BY JEFFREY
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Notes From the Archive: Greer Lankton

2009-10-01T12:50:00.001-04:00

In 1996, the Mattress Factory had the good fortune to work with Greer Lankton as part of a group show that was guest-curated by Margery King. Greer's piece in that show, It's all about ME, Not You, was a large-scale recreation of her Chicago apartment/studio and housed dozens of the artist's hand-made doll figures, photographs, collectibles, and -- perhaps the focal point of the installation -- an addict in a bed surrounded by pill bottles. Shortly after the show opened, Greer Lankton passed away and upon the close of the show, we put the entirety of her piece in storage.

The Lankton Family has generously given Greer's final piece to the Mattress Factory and with the amazing help of several other supporters, we will be adding It's all about ME, Not You to the museum's permanent collection. The opening reception is next Friday, October 9th. You can RSVP and share the event with your friends over on FaceBook.

My role as archivist here at the museum involves documenting, preserving and cataloging artworks or, in most cases, artifacts of artworks. Because of the volume, diversity and fragility of the materials she used, Greer's piece has proven to be a labor of love for me. Many of her doll sculptures are made from delicate materials like toilet paper so implementing proper handling and preservation processes are very important.

And from an interpretive standpoint, this piece is dynamic to say the least. Curator Margery King states in her original exhibition essay:

When faced with the prospect of creating her first large-scale installation at the Mattress Factory, Lankton knew that she wanted to re-create her studio, in an ideal form, designing an environment of "artificial nature/total indulgence," filled with "dolls engrossed in glamour and self abuse." Like the artist herself, Lankton's dolls and environments possess a disarming mix of innocence and decadence, hope and pathos. She said her work was "all about me," reflecting her life as an artist, a transsexual, and a drug addict. But beyond this, from her position as an outsider, Lankton eloquently explored and questioned accepted norms of gender and sexuality, as well as the powerful imagery of popular culture and consumerism. Her work also describes the difficult mandate of these pervasive, seductive models and the pain of those who do not conform. It is tempting to think that Lankton created her installation at the Mattress Factory as if she knew it was her last (she died in late November, a month after the exhibition opened), filling the space with a retrospective selection of her beloved dolls and everything that was most meaningful to her.

In this video, shot at the 1995 Whitney Biennial, Greer talks about two of her sculptures: a bust of Candy Darling and one she calls Blue Babe. The audio and camera quality are a bit shaky, but it's really great to hear the artist herself speak about these works. A great moment comes at 1:06 when a gallery attendant tells Greer not to touch the art and she says simply, "It's mine!" Coincidentally, this Candy Darling sculpture is now on view as part of It's all about ME, Not You.

Speaking for all of us here at the Mattress Factory, we feel very lucky to have the ability to show It's all about ME, Not You permanently. Greer's work has touched many people's lives over the years and we look forward to helping enable that connection for new generations into the future.

POSTED BY LEAH
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PodCamp Pittsburgh 4

2009-09-22T11:07:00.007-04:00

One of the most unfortunate occurances for me last year was being out of town during PodCamp Pittsburgh 3, which took place in October of 2008. Well, lucky for me (and hopefully you!) PodCamp Pittsburgh 4 is coming up in a just few short weeks (October 10 + 11). For those of you thinking, "Pod-what?," PodCamp is a FREE community UnConference, run by and for people who create, enjoy, or are interested in learning more about social media.

This year’s PodCamp Pittsburgh is bringing an exciting crew of social and new media makers to our city. Topics range from beginner-level to advanced, and cover a wide variety of learning sessions for writers, bloggers, vloggers, web developers, web designers, podcasters, business owners, job seekers and anyone interested in learning more.

And what a great surprise to learn a few weeks ago that I'll be presenting two sessions, "myG20: Bringing Anarchists and Business Professionals Together Since 2009" on Day 1 and "Friendship 2.0: Community Building for Non-Profits" on Day 2. Check out the amazingly awesome two-day schedule in its entirety HERE.

Also, big props to @Sorgatron and @allthingsnoisy for coming over and shooting this video spotlight highlighting some of the new media projects we have cooking here at the MF:

So what are you waiting for? Hop to it. Registration is FREE and easy. I hope to see you there!

POSTED BY JEFFREY
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GUEST POST: First-Hand Accounts of Revolution

2009-09-21T09:41:00.011-04:00

The following is a guest post from S.E. Adkins, a North Side neighbor & consultant who draws on her diverse experiences and accumulated knowledge to help small businesses, non-profits, and individuals. Please join us and City of Asylum/Pittsburgh Wednesday evening for a screening of Burma VJ.

The film Burma VJ, by Anders Østergaard compiles smuggled footage from individuals using handicams on the streets of Myanmar to tell the larger story of the so-called Saffron Revolution. In Burma, called Myanmar by the ruling military junta, a disproportionate amount of national income is spent on the armed forces. Living in one of the 20 poorest countries in the world, ordinary Burmese citizens live on little income while the costs of basic commodities such as rice and eggs continue to rise. In February of 2007, small groups began peacefully protesting the state of consumer prices. The protesters, including the monks, were dealt with brutally. Arrests and killings became a hallmark of the military junta’s response to such protests. The video journalist (the VJ in Burma VJ) became revolutionary in their witness of these events. The videos would reach back into Burma by satellite, and were available for international media use. As foreign media is banned, this is even more crucial.

Burma continues to be a topic of wide global importance, underscored by the more recent news stories regarding the imprisonment of Aung San Suu Kyi and the government’s negligence of its people following Cyclone Nargis. The people have very little civil and personal freedoms. City of Asylum/Pittsburgh knows first-hand about this, with their mission being to provide sanctuary to writers exiled under threat of death, imprisonment, or persecution in their native countries. The current writer-in-residence is Khet Mar, herself from Burma. She is a journalist, novelist, short story writer, poet, and essayist. She and her husband, Than Htay, a visual artist, are working together to create a mural representative of their story and the intersections between Burma and Pittsburgh.

There will be a film screening of Burma VJ at the Mattress Factory on Wednesday September 23rd at 7:00 PM, followed by a reception and Q&A with a monk from the Saffron Revolution. The next day, Thursday September 24th, at 9:00 AM a press conference will be held at City of Asylum/Pittsburgh with writer-in-residence Khet Mar and Burmese monks. This is a unique chance to meet Burmese monks from the frontline of a revolution, and to learn more about City of Asylum/Pittsburg’s newest writer-in-residence, Khet Mar. I hope to see you at one of these special events!

Reservations are FREE, but must be made in advance by calling 412-321-2190.

Do-It-Yourself QR Codes: A 4-Step Guide

2009-09-10T11:00:00.003-04:00

Approximately one year ago, the Mattress Factory began experimenting with QR (or Quick Response) codes and this past April the museum became the first in the United States to utilize the technology on-site as a visitor engagement tool. More on that HERE. Our use of QR Codes in the galleries has been getting some attention (1,2), and I've fielded numerous inquiries from artists and arts organizations wishing to utilize this technology in their practice or operations.

One can only presume that, as 2D barcode technology continues to evolve and becomes more accessible to more people, more artists and arts orgs will want to utilize it. And on the heels of that interest comes people and companies that will attempt to capitalize from providing clients with an essentially open (read: FREE) technology. So, in an attempt to save our fellow artists a boat-load of money, we decided to publish a step-by-step guide for those who wish to experiment with QR code technology. No consulting firm needed. Please keep in mind that this is only how we here at the MF implemented the codes. If you think there are better ways, or workarounds, please share in the comments to the post.

STEP 1: Upload Killer Content (IMPORTANT!!)
Give people or visitors a reason to open the codes. The codes we place throughout the galleries ~~contain~~ link to mobile browser optimized (JI - 9/15/09) rich multi-media content that provides context or backstory to the artworks we exhibit. We upload video files to YouTube, behind-the-scenes still images to Flickr, and informative text-based PDF files, all of which are ~~supported by QR code technology~~ accessible via most mobile platforms (JI - 9/15/09). Universal codes that access a stagnant website may prove to be less interesting to your audience.

STEP 2: Generate the Codes
Once you have developed the content you wish to share with your audience, it's time to make the codes. We use a very simple web generator provided by Kaywa. This generator is nice because it provides output & resolution options. If you're creating a print piece, you can select the extra large file output which optimizes quite nicely for signage.

Because the density of information contained within a code can effect its readability, we shorten all URLs with http://bit.ly. This may seem like a frivolous extra step, but it greatly impacts the ease with which our codes are read. Below are two codes that open the same URL. The URL embedded in the less dense code on the right has been shortened making this code easier and more consistently read.

STEP 3: Place or Hang Codes In Desired Locations
Once we generate our codes, we design the signage and collateral materials that will hold them. Codes can be displayed and read in hardcopy or electronic (screen) format. The only obstacle we've experienced has been customizing the size of the codes. Ideally, we'd like the codes to be smaller (i.e. 3/4" x 3/4"), but the smallest we've been able to go with consistent readability has been 1.5" x 1.5". As QR technology and hardware progresses, I anticipate the ability to reduce code sizes will emerge in the near future.

Mattress Factory gallery card containing a QR code.

STEP 4: Introduce the QR Codes to Users in a Non-Intimidating Way
Let's face it. The unknown scares people. And new technology has a way of intimidating potential users. We knew going into this that it was imperative to present the codes to visitors through technology they were already familiar with. We started by hanging several "This is a QR Code" signs in the museum lobby and elevator. These signs contain a short description about what the codes are.

We knew visitors would have more questions about the codes that would be impossible to answer through signage, so we created a simple text message (SMS) info relay. Through TextMarks, an inexpensive and easy SMS shortcode provider, visitors who send the keyword QRCODE to TextMarks' shortcode receive an immediate reply containing two links. The first link directs the user's mobile phone browser to a site that detects what type of phone they're using, provides more information, and a FREE download of the appropriate code reading application.

The 2nd link directs iPhone users to App Store, where they can download the most current FREE version of the BeeTagg Multicode Reader. There are numerous barcode reading applications available on most mobile platforms, but we recommend BeeTagg because of it's universality across the spectrum. In fact, factory-installed readers are now common on many phones including Nokia devices and the G1 Android. This SMS information relay has proved to be a vital piece to our QR code puzzle and has served those visitors curious about the technology greatly.

QR CODE WRAP-UP
So this is what worked for us. I'm interested to hear if other organizations find this information useful and beneficial. For further reading about QR codes in a museum setting, check out how the Powerhouse Museum in Australia has been using them. If you have further questions or a tip that might help others to implement innovative use of QR codes, feel free to leave a comment. If you'd like to hit me up off-line, shoot over an email or track me down on Twitter.

POSTED BY JEFFREY
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Movin' and Shakin' at the MF

2009-08-25T15:04:00.004-04:00

Whoever said the dog days of summer were supposed to be slow-paced and relaxing has obviously not spent much time around the MF! Things are moving along at break-neck speed here at the museum -- and that's just the way we like it. In six short weeks from now Pittsburgh will have hosted a monumental event for a city of our size (the G20 Economic Summit -- more on the MF's role in this below) and the Mattress Factory will have opened two new exhibitions. This pace is not for the weak of heart, so fasten your seat belt and hold on.

G20 Pittsburgh Summit
On September 24 + 25, the G20 Economic Summit will be held here in Pittsburgh. This is a pretty big deal for a city of our size. During these two days in September, millions of people around the world will be watching the proceedings of the summit against the backdrop of our city. Thousands of people (from credentialed media to peaceful demonstrators) will descend upon Pittsburgh in late September and we thought we'd give them a street-level view of the city produced by people on the ground.

So last week we (in collaboration with our good friends at deepLocal) launched http://myG20.org, a real-time crowd-curated guide to Pittsburgh. Anyone can participate through several different social media platforms. And if you're not a "My-Twitt-Flick-Face-Tuber," have no fear. We've created a simple web-form that will automatically post your message to the content stream.

In the first 90 minutes after we released the link to the MF Twitter Posse, more than 100 people posted to the site. Pretty cool. So cool, in fact, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette took notice. So check out the site, use it, tell your friends and we'll see how it pans out leading up to and during the G20 in September.

Greer Lankton: It's all about ME, Not You
Last week we also announced the addition of Greer Lankton’s It’s all about ME, Not You (1996) to the museum's permanent collection. First shown as part of a group exhibition at the museum in 1996, the large-scale installation was recently given to the Mattress Factory by the late artist’s family.

Greer Lankton devoted most of her artistic life to creating highly expressive mannequin-like figures with full make-up, wigs, jewelry, and clothing. Her figures populated her tiny studio/apartment in Chicago surrounded by a decorated tableau of stenciled walls, autobiographical drawings, shrines to the likes of Candy darling and Patty Smith, children’s toys, hundreds of fashion magazines, and books on Egon Schiele and other favorite artists. Modeled after her apartment, It's all about ME, Not You opens with a public reception on October 9, 2009.

LIKENESS (October 9,2009 - March 21, 2010)
Portraits are everywhere. They are in our wallets; on our computers, cell phones and desktops; on the walls of corporate offices, banks and schools. But what precisely is a portrait or image of likeness? How do artists’ methods and materials evolve as technology progresses with quickly? And in this age of user-generated content, who exactly is the artist?

LIKENESS is a group exhibition that aims to examine human depiction during a post-Warholian era in which new technology has played an influential role. It includes the work of artists Jim Campbell, Paul DeMartinis, John Herschend, Nikki S. Lee, Joseph Manino, Greta Pratt and Tony Oursler. Elaine A. King, who is a freelance critic and curator as well as a professor at Carnegie Mellon University teaching Art History/Theory/Museum Studies, will curate the exhibition. LIKENESS opens with a public reception on October 9, 2009.

POSTED BY JEFFREY
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Pittsburgh Zen Center Celebrates 10 Years

2009-08-14T16:17:00.005-04:00

The following is a guest-post by Anthony Roscoe, member of the Pittsburgh Zen Center. Please join us in congratulating the PZC on their ten-year anniversary!

Greetings friends! My name is Tony Roscoe and I have been asked to guest blog about an exciting event in Pittsburgh. Next week the Mattress Factory will be hosting the first event to kick off the 10th Anniversary of the founding of the Zen Center of Pittsburgh! I am a member of the Zen Center and sit most Tuesday mornings with a group from our sangha, or Buddhist community, at MF from 7:00–7:40am.

But what is all this about Zen you ask? I'll try to explain a little from my understanding. First we have to go to India around 500 BCE, when Buddhism was founded by a former prince who decided that neither a life of hedonism nor one of strict adherence to ascetic ideals really brought about an end to suffering, and instead awakened to what is called the Middle Way. After this awakening, he was called the Buddha or Awakened One. He began teaching others about his experience, and his disciples went on to teach others spreading Buddhism throughout Asia. As Buddhism came through China and into Japan, various schools were formed as those cultures influenced Buddhism and vice versa. In China, the Soto Zen school of Buddhism came into existence with a focus on a form of sitting meditation or zazen called shikantaza, or just sitting. It is this branch of Buddhism that is now practiced at the Zen Center of Pittsburgh and is part of what we are celebrating.

Our celebration begins with a sunrise meditation session on Tuesday, August 18 at 6:00am, followed by a walking tour of the community gardens surrounding MF in Pittsburgh's historic Mexican War Streets.

On Wednesday, August 19, we'll be gathering at the Friends' Meeting House in Shadyside for an Intro to Zen class from 6:00-6:45pm followed by a screening of How To Cook Your Life, a documentary film by famed German director Doris Dörrie that focuses on Zen cooking and the Rev. Edward Espe Brown. You may well know Rev. Brown from his popular cookbooks such as The Tassajara Bread Book. We'll be joined by Rev. Brown following the movie for a discussion of the movie and a reception.

On Thursday, Rev. Brown will be teaching a cooking class at Sweetwater Cooking on the Southside. This hands-on class has limited space so please check our web site and to register as you must pre-register for this event.

Our week of events culminates on Friday with a special evening at our Deep Spring Temple in Bell Acres which is just north of Sewickley. We'll be gather for a fundraising dinner and silent auction enjoying foods from the countries that brought us Zen Buddhism. Buddhism was founded in India which will be represented by Taj Mahal from the North Hills. It eventually spread into China represented by Mandarin Gourmet in Downtown; Vietnam represented by Pho Kim 88 in Castle Shannon; and finally into Korea and Japan both represented by Ginza in Oakland.

The party continues on Saturday, August 22, among the 14 acres our temple is located on as we have a Family Fun Day with various activities for the whole family.

Finally, on Sunday, August 23, we will close our celebrations with a special ceremony and a vegetarian potluck lunch.

We'd love to see everyone at any or all of our events. Some do require pre-registration so that we can prepare for everyone. Visit deepspringzen.org for more information and to register for events requiring it. Thank you to the staff of MF for hosting our Tuesday morning sessions and for offering us this online space. May you all be well!

--

For more information, please visit deepspringzen.org

Photo Fantasia + A Super-Secret Project!

2009-08-07T10:21:00.001-04:00

Wow. What a couple of weeks it's been here at the MF! All apologies for having temporarily let the light go out here on the blog. As you can see from the photo sets embedded below, we've been busy beavers lately! And just a hint, we've also been working hard on a very exciting project we'll be able to share with you in a few days. The tentative launch date is sometime the week of August 17th. Like we do with many of our online-based interactive projects (1, 2, 3), we plan to hand it over to the MF Twitter Posse and FaceBook Mob before anyone else gets it.

Now onto the photos. On Friday, July 24, we opened the thirteenth installment of the Gestures Exhibition Series. Nearly 400 people turned out, which made for an excellent party, although it did get a *little* stuffy in the galleries =) Artists in the show include Stephanie Armbruster, Jeremy Boyle, Nayda Collazo-Llorens, Jonny Farringdon w/ Allison Whitney Meredith, Victoria Hruska & La Toya Frasier, Gary Huck, Andrew Ellis Johnson, Amanda Long, Lindsay O'Leary, Drew Pavelchak, Renee Piechocki, John Riegert, The Urban Gardener: Joan Kimmel & Lynne Weber, Patricia Villalobos Echeverría and Dror Yaron.

As if that wasn't enough, we hosted two sold-out performances (7/31 & 8/1) by the Denver Broncos UK. The concerts took place in the MF basement with set design and video projections by Owen Smith. The band performed flawlessly, the sound was pristine and the set/ambiance was gorgeous. Look for the band's debut release in the very near future. The performance shots in the slideshow below were taken by Haley Harned. Thanks Haley!

And check out this awesome Denver Broncos UK set by Joey Kennedy! Thanks for sharing these great photos with us, Joey!

POSTED BY JEFFREY
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Useless at the MF

2009-07-16T09:38:00.010-04:00

Regular readers of the MF blog know the museum tries hard to maintain environmentally responsible organizational procedures. From our use of QR Codes in the galleries and facility-wide CFL lighting to the retro-fitting of our properties and GREEN membership program, we strive to make sure what we do has the least amount of impact to the environment as possible. And now I'm happy to announce we're extending that mission into our product selection in the MF shop.

Many of the new green items in the shop come from Useless, an organization that focuses on using less and giving more in order to maintain a better planet. The organization is based around the reuse of materials to create chic, eco-friendly products. Think about all the useless things that we buy everyday, and then consider putting your money to a good cause like Useless. 10% of their profits fund clean water and sanitation projects around the world. You can see the exact project your money is going to by visiting their website: www.useless.org. All of their products are made in the USA and are created from recycled and sustainable materials. The MF Shop offers their BPA-free, recyclable water bottles, organic cotton tshirts, in both men's and women's sizes, and billboard tote bags.

And for a short time only, you can add a MF Green Membership to any Useless Merchandise (or any other Green product) purchase for only $40! (A $10.00 discount) So think about the Mattress Factory in your own mission to "go green," and become a Green Member today!

POSTED BY ERIN
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GESTURES 13: Embeddable E-Flyers

2009-07-03T17:04:00.004-04:00

It's that time again. We're three weeks out from the opening of another Gestures exhibition! This, the thirteenth installment in the Gestures Exhibition Series, will open with a public reception on Friday, July 24, from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM. If you plan to attend, you can RSVP and keep tabs on who else will be there over on FaceBook. We had such a blast working with guest-curator Katherine Talcott on Gestures 12 that we've asked her to curate this upcoming exhibition as well. Katherine has chosen some amazing artists including Stephanie Armbruster, Jeremy Boyle, Nayda Collazo-Llorens, Jonny Farringdon, Victoria Hruska & La Toya Frasier, Gary Huck, Andrew Ellis Johnson, Amanda Long, Lindsay O'Leary, Drew Pavelchak, Renee Piechocki, John Riegert, The Urban Gardener: Joan Kimmel & Lynne Weber, Patricia Villalobos Echeverria and Dror Yaron.

This is where you come in. With each new exhibition and event, we are consistently blown away by the support from our online community. I've embedded two sizes of electronic flyers (complete with corresponding HTML code) below. Feel free to help spread the word by posting these awesome Brett Yasko-designed flyers within your social networks and emailing to the art-loving friends in your contact book. Anything you can do is greatly appreciated by the artists and all of us here at the MF! I hope to see you at the opening on July 24.

EMBED THIS 500 x 790 E-FLYER:
Copy and paste this HTML code:

<a href="http://www.mattress.org/index.cfm?event=Exhibitions&c=Upcoming"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2489/3685557078_3c4d0d8fbc_o.jpg" BORDER="0"></a>

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EMBED THIS 316 x 500 E-FLYER:
Copy and paste this HTML code:

<a href="http://www.mattress.org/index.cfm?event=Exhibitions&c=Upcoming"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2489/3685557078_46b8be6729.jpg" BORDER="0"></a>

POSTED BY JEFFREY
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Denver Broncos UK - FRIDAY SHOW SOLD OUT

2009-06-25T14:19:00.005-04:00

The basement of the Mattress Factory has seen some interesting things throughout the museum’s 32 year history. It’s been filled with candy for Rebecca Holland’s installation Glaze (2003) and most recently flooded with water for kanata (2008), a piece by artist Yumi Kori. But for two nights this summer, the lower level of the Mattress Factory will be transformed into an intimate concert space for the performance debut of Denver Broncos UK.

Due to limited seating, two concerts will take place on ~~Friday, July 31~~ SOLD OUT and Saturday, August 1, at 9:00 PM.

UPDATE 7/31/2009: Friday's Denver Broncos UK show is SOLD OUT. A few tickets remain for the Saturday performance, so we recommend reserving your tickets now.

Denver Broncos UK features Munly Munly, Slim Cessna, and Lord Dwight Pentacost, three musicians who have been working together for more than a decade as one half of Slim Cessna’s Auto Club (Alternative Tentacles). Though the music itself may be unclassifiable, the band’s songs are best described as dynamic, suspenseful, painful and beautiful. The sparse arrangements feature an array of instruments put to exotic use; guitar, autoharp, accordion, bowed banjo, and numerous percussive instruments; a landscape inhabited by haunted vocal harmonies. The sum of all parts reveals itself as a darkly-lit celebration of traditional American music, forged into a surprising new form.

Both MF performances will feature set design and video projections by Owen Smith, and will be documented for future release by the band. To learn more about the Denver Broncos UK, visit http://www.myspace.com/denverbroncosusa.

POSTED BY JEFFREY
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Rob Rogers Finds Inspiration In MF Barbara

2009-06-24T11:27:00.002-04:00

POSTED BY JEFFREY
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2009 Urban Garden Party Wrap-Up

2009-06-17T15:21:00.011-04:00

And like that, it's over. In case you haven't heard, we threw one major party last Friday! Thank you so much to everyone who attended and/or donated their time/money/muscle to help make the 2009 Urban Garden Party the most successful Mattress Factory fundraiser ever! We couldn't have done it without you. And for those who couldn't attend (or those who did and want to relive the experience), we just uploaded more than 100 photos to our Flickr stream. A slideshow is embedded below.

You can access the entire album HERE. All photos are high-resolution (courtesy of John Altdorfer) and available as FREE downloads (personal use only, please!). And remember, all of this is to help support Mattress Factory exhibitions, programs and operations, so please consider leaving a little something in the tipjar.

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UPDATE 1: Do you have photos from your Urban Garden Party experience? Add them to the Mattress Factory Group Pool on Flickr!

UPDATE 2: Check out this amazing Garden Party photo set by Jo Ellen Smith.

UPDATE 3: More than 100 Garden Party photos taken by MF Twitter Posse member @rjdlc

UPDATE 4: This Flickr Set from Jeff Lantz has another 93 Garden Party photos. Awesome!

POSTED BY JEFFREY
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2009 Urban Garden Party Trailer

2009-06-08T10:45:00.002-04:00

Yikes! We're five days out from the 2009 Urban Garden Party, our big annual fundraiser. This year's event is going to be over-the-top and things are definitely coming together – the lobby is rapidly being converted to a graffiti-laden backstage hang-out for the VIP Pre-Party and the largest tent I've ever seen has been erected on our brand new parking lot! So, to get everyone in the mood and feeling this year's theme, we've produced this 2 minute Urban Garden Party trailer. We hope you like it. Please feel free to share with your friends!

POSTED BY JEFFREY
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We did it! We're sweaty, but we did it!

2009-06-03T14:17:00.004-04:00

Regular readers of the MF Blog will know that April was officially declared the month of highlighting the Green efforts of the Mattress Factory. But because the Greening of the museum is an ongoing project, the Development Department (located on the third - and highest - floor of the MF administrative building) decided to partake in an energy usage experiment. We were curious about our potential impact–on both usage and the monthly financials–if we went the entire month of May without using heat or, more noticeably, air conditioning. Remember now how heat rises?

So from May 1st through May 31st, all heating and air conditioning remained off. Kudos to Jeffrey, Emily, Claudia, Colleen and Shannon for sweatin' through May with me.

Not only did we shave a wee bit from our carbon footprint, we were able to save a few bucks. Not a bad deal, really. What we weren't prepared for was the extreme humidity toward the end of the month. We survived two straight days of 88 degrees and nearly 100% humidity in the office. The dozens of windows offer an abundance of natural sunlight and gorgeous views, but the greenhouse effect is a little less than welcome on a warm, humid day. We did it, though! Yeah!

Every little gesture makes a difference, so why not turn up your thermostat a few degrees this summer and grab a MF Green Membership with the extra cash you save?

POSTED BY LINDSAY
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Limited Edition Garden Party T-Shirts

2009-06-03T08:34:00.006-04:00

UPDATE 6/12/2009: We are now Sold Out of the Urban Garden Party Ticket + T-Shirt packages.

We are in the home stretch with a little over a week left to go before the MF gets rockin' at the 2009 Urban Garden Party! Everyone here at the MF is having such a great time with this year's theme. MF Shannon & the rest of the graphic design team are working up some amazing rock-themed event signage and ads, while MF Owen & his team of installers are going all-out with lighting, video projections, multi-media and other decor.

I didn't want the MF shop to be left out, so we decided to put together these limited edition graphic T-Shirts especially for the 2009 Urban Garden Party. These vintage black Alternative Apparel tees come in both Men's and fitted Ladies sizes (S, M, L, XL). They'll be on-sale for $20 during the event next Friday, so if you're planning to attend the Garden Party, make sure to stop in the shop and pick one up!

And what's even better is that we're offering an extremely limited number as a Ticket & T-Shirt advance package. So act fast; while supplies last you can pick up a limited edition T-Shirt and a ticket to the Urban Garden Party for $100.00 even (A SAVINGS OF $10). The Urban Garden Party is a very important fundraiser for the museum that helps to continue to support cutting-edge artists and push artistic boundaries. All proceeds from the Garden Party and related merchandise go directly to support Mattress Factory exhibitions and programs.

POSTED BY ERIN
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Artist Spotlight :: Kate Joranson

2009-06-01T12:05:00.000-04:00

The following is a guest blog post by artist Kate Joranson. Kate is currently exhibiting three pieces in Gestures: An Exhibition of Small Site-Specific Works, which runs through June 21, 2009. Over the course of several days, she felt her way through Winifred Lutz’s Garden Installation here at the Mattress Factory.

While wearing work gloves, I ran my hands over the brick, stone, and concrete walls, rusted metal, boulders, crevices, plants, etc. The gloves got more and more worn each day, thinning and softening. Holes appeared in the fingertips and several seams ripped.

While working, I:

- scaled the garden wall
- dunked my hands in the water
- felt the ponytail-like grasses
- avoided disturbing the moss
- avoided disturbing spider and insect homes
- kept thinking about what it might have been like to actually make the walls
- wished I could get down below the grate, in the cistern

The gloves (and the paper rubbings) both connect me and remove me from the stones, plants, etc. My paper and leather surfaces take on the contours of what they come into contact with and absorb the space. I've also been thinking about pressure, and how the paper and the gloves become marked by the Garden. I'm captivated by how Winifred Lutz put the Garden in motion and then let go, allowing natural and human-made forces to take over. I wanted to find a way to attend to all these ongoing changes.

Its interesting to have done this in the spring, since so much changes each day, and the birds are so active. It would be interesting to do this in each of the 4 seasons.

Thanks Twitter Posse! Have a FREE Garden Party Ticket!

2009-05-28T11:33:00.002-04:00

I think it's safe to say that we owe a big THANK YOU to our extremely awesome base of online supporters for all their help during the past year. Just off the top of my head, this project, this project, this project, and especially this project would not have been as successful as they were had it not been for the awesomeness of the MF Twitter Posse and the MF FaceBook Mob. So as a small token of appreciation, we came up with a cool way to say thank you to some of our most loyal MF online supporters.

Many of you know about the MF's Urban Garden Party. You know that it's the must-attend, anything goes event of the summer where 1,000+ art lovers come out to have a once-a-year experience while enjoying the finest food and drink Pittsburgh has to offer. You also know that tickets aren't cheap ($90) because it's an important fundraiser for the museum. Through this one event, we earn approximately 10% of our annual operating budget. And this year's event is shaping up to be something special, complete with top-secret performances and unbelievable surprises.

So here's the deal. Sometime next week we're opening a block of 25 FREE Garden Party tickets which will be available to our Twitter Posse at a secret URL on a first come, first served basis. The secret URL will be leaked on our Twitter stream sometime during the week of 6/1 - 6/5. The first 25 to register get into the event FREE. That's it. No strings...100% royal treatment.

You can join the MF Twitter Posse HERE to receive the URL in real-time as it's released.

We'll also publish links to the 25 winners' Twitter streams here on the MF blog in advance of the event, so those who are unable to attend or live out of town can follow along with attendees' live Tweets and Twitpics.

Finally, and again, one more thank you to those of you who, during the last year, have helped the MF cause by re-tweeting, sharing links, posting e-flyers and attending events. We appreciate everything you've done and continue to do.

POSTED BY JEFFREY
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Sizzling Summer Deals in the MF Shop!

2009-05-28T10:00:00.001-04:00

The month of June is just around the corner and summer is starting to heat up here at the Mattress Factory. Starting next week, the MF Shop will be offering several amazing deals I'd like to share with you. My personal favorite is the bag sale, which will include most of our in-stock bags at a discount of 15%. There are many different bags to choose from including MF messanger bags, recycled bags, and felted laptop bags. Because most of the bags are one-of-a-kind (like the Vy & Elle bag made from recycled billboards you see here), they are only available in-store. The sale will be on until the end of the month, so give me a call or come come visit me in the shop to SAVE BIG on some of our most unique bags.

Also, we are offering a promotion for our MF catalog collection. Through the end of June, both ten-year catalogs (1980-1989 and 1990-1999) will be heavily discounted when purchased as a package. The two paperback catalogs, regularly $59 combined, are now on sale for $50 and include a complimentary New Installations, Artists in Residence: Cuba catalog from our show in 2005. [ MORE INFO ] The hardcover catalogs also include a Cuba catalog and are being sold together for $100, regularly $115. [ MORE INFO ] These are really great coffee table books and cover all Mattress Factory installations from the museum's first two decades.

And as if all that isn't enough, for a limited time, Mattress Factory logo magnets will be $.99 with ANY purchase in the MF Shop. So get online, stop in the museum, or give the Shop a call (412.231.3169) to get some great deals!

POSTED BY ERIN
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Arts & Citizenship by Pittsburgh Filmmakers

2009-05-27T16:34:00.005-04:00

A few weeks ago, Mattress Factory Co-Directors Barbara Luderowski and Michael Olijnyk posted a call to action regarding the PA Arts funding situation. The battle for the Arts in the state of Pennsylvania is far from over, and our good friends over at Pittsburgh Filmmakers have produced this great video featuring a diverse cross-section of the Pittsburgh arts community (Barbara and Michael included). Please share this video far and wide, and let's stand together for the arts in Pennsylvania.

POSTED BY JEFFREY
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