Mattress Factory | Weblog

SHOP MF: Dead Bury Dead

2013-05-22T16:45:00.002-04:00

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

2013-05-13T14:00:00.002-04:00

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

2013-05-06T09:49:00.001-04:00

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

POSTED BY KATE
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SCREENINGS: Matthew Biederman, 8-bit Meta-matic

2013-05-02T17:22:00.001-04:00

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.

POSTED BY CAITLIN
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KATE MILTENBERGER, Development Intern

2013-04-23T15:17:00.000-04:00

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

2013-04-18T14:33:00.003-04:00

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.

POSTED BY CAITLIN
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MOLLY TIGHE, Archivist

2013-04-11T16:29:00.001-04:00

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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Our CLASSy Volunteers

2013-04-10T11:00:00.000-04:00

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.

POSTED BY MARIA
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CAITLIN HARPSTER, Education Intern

2013-04-09T14:08:00.001-04:00

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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SAM DITCH, Museum Shop Manager

2013-04-09T13:44:00.002-04:00

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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MARIA MANGANO, Visitor Services Coordinator

2013-04-09T12:49:00.002-04:00

Extra-Curricular Interests

Bicycling, clarinet, natural history, making high-pitched noises at photos of cute cats on the internet

What artists are currently in heavy rotation on your iPod?
Don Byron; The Bad Plus; Chamber Music Northwest & David Shifrin playing the Brahms Clarinet Quintet

If you could bring two things with you to a deserted island, what would they be?
A pocket knife, and my husband--he's good at the wilderness survival thing, so he could build us a shelter while I go birdwatching

If you could have dinner with one person from history, who would it be and why?
Marie Skłodowska-Curie. She was an incredible scientist and a true trailblazer for women - the first woman to win a Nobel, the only person to win in multiple sciences, the first female professor at the University of Paris - I could go on. Her pride in her heritage (she used her Polish maiden name professionally), her defiance of prevailing wisdom concerning the ability of women, and her dedication to her career have inspired me since childhood.

One more thing we should know about you:

I taught myself Quenya (the Elvish language and alphabet from Tolkein's The Lord of the Rings) in high school. It gave me some nerd cred for Carnegie Mellon.

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MANDY YOUNG, Marketing Manager

2013-04-08T13:56:00.000-04:00

Extra-Curricular Interests
I enjoy web-based collections acquisitions (read: online shopping), devouring British period pieces, whipping up culinary creations with none of the proper ingredients, and continuing my life-long quest for the perfect sweatshirt.

What artists are currently in heavy rotation on your iPod?
MGMT, Moody Blues, Eric Clapton, Fleetwood Mac

If you could bring two things with you to a deserted island, what would they be?
I suppose I should say, "my fiance," and something practical like, "bottled water." But if we're playing make-believe let's say a swarthy pirate and an unlimited supply of fair-trade coffee.

If you could have dinner with one person from history, who would it be and why?
My grandfather. Also Frank Lloyd Wright, because cantilevers.

One more thing we should know about you:
I have an unhealthy obsession with ridding the world of grammatical errors. I also do not like sweet drinks or mean people. I do, however, like mean drinks and sweet people.
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Factory Feature: Betsy Damon

2013-04-08T11:00:00.000-04:00

Betsy Damon is an artist whose work is part of Feminist And…, an exhibition we have on view through May 26. Damon is an environmental artist living and working in Brooklyn, New York. She received her MFA from Columbia University. In 1985 while camping across the country with her children, Betsy was moved by the dry riverbeds in Castle Valley, Utah, and decided to devote her life to the investigation, education, and preservation of the integrity of water. Six years later, in 1991, Damon founded Keepers of the Waters. As their mission states, Keepers of the Waters aims "to inspire and promote projects that combine art, science and community involvement to restore, preserve and remediate water sources."

For Feminist And… Damon created an enchanting installation in our basement. Equipped with stones, rocks and running water, Water Rules–Life Pittsburgh: Seeking Lost Rivers, Living Waters of Larimer is an inspirited work of art that completely transforms the space into a captivating new environment. Described by Damon as a “river,” this installation is meant to represent the topography of Pittsburgh. Damon explains that, “Water is the foundation of all life. The Ohio River is the foundation of Pittsburgh, and this very basement is the foundation of the Mattress Factory. This installation down in the basement is a foundation.”

As part of her installation, Damon includes a video, Living Waters of Larimer. In this video, Damon interviews the residents of Larimer and talks to them about water in their community. Larimer is a plateau neighborhood in the east end of Pittsburgh upon which more than 75 million gallons of water falls upon annually. As part of her work here at the Mattress Factory, Damon also expands her installation to include the work she is doing in the Larimer community. Damon poses the question, “What would happen if Larimer was able to collect all their water?” She then concludes, “They could have playgrounds with water, fountains, ponds, streams running through, water for fire, water for the basic street cleaning, and it would all be from the rain water.” Damon continues to work with the Larimer green team and district to redesign the infrastructure of the neighborhood in order to accomplish such goals.

One might ask how an environmentalist such as Damon ties into our Feminist and… installation. Damon explains, “The Earth really is our mother. We were born in water, and most life is created in water. Water is a generative force on our planet. For many reasons it has been really important for me personally to find that generative initiating impulse of life. And that’s very female.” Damon also was an activist during the beginning of the women’s movement and taught a feminist studio at Cornell University. She led a huge national network for twenty years called No Limits for Women Artists.

On Saturday, April 20, 2013, Betsy Damon will be at the Mattress Factory to lead ArtLab: You Are Water. In this ArtLab, participants will learn about how water creates life, form, your body, plants, stones, etc. She will demonstrate how to create natural filtration systems, and participants will make a work of art using a beautiful marbling technique on paper and inspired by the important role water plays in our lives.

POSTED BY CAITLIN
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SCREENINGS: Steven Summers, Empire

2013-04-03T12:52:00.000-04:00

Steven Summers is a Chicago-based artist originally from Pittsburgh. Summers studied painting and drawing, receiving an MFA in Film and Video at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He now works as a video instructor for DePaul University and The Chicago Academy for the Arts. Summers’ works range from traditional narratives to experimental installations. Summers installed a two-channel video, XX/XY, at the museum for our 2002 Gestures series. The piece consisted of two screens--one displaying an old man and one a young woman--at either end of a long corridor. XX/XY played with the notion of a moment in time—two screens staring back at each other.

For the current Screenings exhibition, Summers has created Empire. Empire is a three-hour, digitally manipulated video of an elderly man lying dead on the floor in a living room. How long has the man been lying there? What is actually happening? Is anything happening at all? One might ponder these sorts of questions while standing in front of the large projection screen in the lobby of the Mattress Factory. If you choose to stick around for a few (or several) minutes, you might begin to notice something is, in fact, happening. The room begins to grow lighter, becoming more illuminated as time passes. You might begin to notice the clouds outside the window are slowly floating by. The fern in the background is ever so slightly swaying back and forth. A narrative is unfolding, and it is up to the viewer to fill in the gaps.

Summers’ Empire is a beautiful homage to Andy Warhol’s 1964 film of the same name. I touched base with Exhibitions Manager, Owen Smith and got his feedback on the new installment. Owen mentions, “It is Summers’ own version of a homage to Warhol, but not in the traditional sense that he is trying to achieve the same things. It is totally different.” Warhol’s film is an eight-hour piece in black and white, and is a single, stationary shot of the Empire State Building. Devoid of anything personal, Warhol’s Empire presents a spectator-viewer of the exterior of an iconic building in New York City. It is a commentary on the passing of time, from dusk to dawn. Warhol lengthened the film from six to eight hours by slowing down the speed from 24 frames per second to 16 frames per second. The point of the film, according to Warhol, is to, “see time go by.” Warhol asks the viewer to be patient, and absorb the changing of time, almost in a religious, meditative state.

Summers’ Empire is also asking the same thing of his viewers; however, Summers’ video is much more personal and more narrative than Warhol’s film. We, the viewer, have a bug's-eye-view of the deceased man. We are helplessly present in the room with him, and we--the viewer--are alive. According to Summers, this could be “both a comment on mortality but also the nature of narrative films. Narrative films, by tradition, work in an artificial time bubble. They cut quickly from scene to scene, and jump from day to day. ‘Boring’ unimportant parts are removed.” Empire is not one of these narrative films. It does not run on its own fictional clock, but runs in the same real time that the viewer experiences. Summers wants the viewer to feel time.

Steven Summers’ Empire will be screening in the lobby of the Mattress Factory during regular museum hours until April 11, 2013. Come by and check it out for yourself!

POSTED BY CAITLIN
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EARTH DAY at the MATTRESS FACTORY

2013-04-02T15:12:00.000-04:00

The natural world, including human beings, is connected through a sacred energy. When you walk through the woods or a beautiful garden you are connected to this wonderful energy. Earth Day helps us to remember this and to realize that we must protect and take care of our natural environment. Art can represent the spirit and beauty of the natural world by exactly replicating nature (such as photography and certain painting processes) or through more conceptual art, representing the spirit or ideas of the artist such as Winifred Lutz’ Garden at the Mattress Factory. With this in mind, we are planning plenty of Earth-friendly events to celebrate Earth Day!

Earth Day at the Mattress Factory will take place Saturday, April 6, 2013. The museum will host three special events: Backyard Composting, Water & You: How Rain Gardens Clean & Protect the Environment and Art Lab: From Herbs to Art.

Backyard Composting will be held from 10am to noon. Not sure what to do with your kitchen, garden and yard scraps? Would you like natural, home-made compost for your lawns and gardens? Expand your recycling efforts to include kitchen scraps and yard debris. Nancy Martin-Silver of the Pennsylvania Resource Council--who taught the Rain Barrel workshop, “Celebrate the Rain!” last fall--returns to present this workshop. Backyard Composting will cover the importance and benefits of composting, the process of setting up a compost pile, proper maintenance, and ways of using finished compost. Participants will receive an Earth Machine Compost Bin, which is approved across the state as an ideal bin for urban and suburban areas, and has an eighty-gallon capacity. Registration is required and costs $50 single/$55 couple (includes one compost unit per registration). Sign up at www.prc.org or call (412) 488-7490, ext. 226.

Water & You: How Rain Gardens Clean and Protect the Environment will follow the Backyard Composting workshop. Free with museum admission, Water & You will be hosted by The Urban Gardeners, the local and creative North Side gardening center and artists. The Urban Gardeners are not strangers to the Mattress Factory: in 2009, they created a beautiful site-specific living plant installation, Lawn, outside the entrance to 1414 Monterey Street. We are thrilled to have them back to lead this interactive demonstration about the significance of rain gardens and how they aid in naturally protecting our environments. The Urban Gardeners will also discuss what watersheds are and how they function in rain gardens. The Urban Gardeners will provide useful information about how to build and maintain your own rain garden so we all can do our part in saving the environment.

Art Lab: From Herbs to Art is the final installment of Earth Day at the Mattress Factory and will take place from 1pm-4pm. This special ArtLab will be guided by museum educator Rosalind Santavicca. Rosalind will demonstrate the special technique she uses to create watercolor prints of beautiful herbs, plants and flowers. Participants will be able to pick from a selection of herbs, or use leaves from plants in the Mattress Factory’s own urban garden. This is a fun project that can be done at home with your friends and family as well! ArtLab is free with museum admission.

POSTED BY CAITLIN
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SHARE: A Storytelling Potluck

2013-03-28T13:40:00.000-04:00

On Thursday April 18, the Mattress Factory will host SHARE: an evening of sharing food and ideas. This democratic evening will be held in conjunction with our current exhibition, Feminist And..., which presents new work by six women artists from throughout the world. The show’s curator, Hilary Robinson Ph.D, proposes that feminism is not a single-issue set of politics but rather a multi-vocal, multi-generational and multi-cultural evolution of thinking and practices. In that spirit, guests of SHARE will first tour the exhibition, and then will be invited to share food and drink. During the potluck, a predetermined group of sharers will begin telling stories about a life-changing experience. Each sharer will have 6 minutes to present.

One of the evening’s sharers is Feminist And... artist Julia Cahill. Cahill is excited to be a part of an event that is both a casual potluck presentation and an open conversation with the community. She believes that, “this is the kind of event that needs to happen more often and among more communities. It’s important to have frequent dialogue with other artists or colleagues.” Cahill uses humor and parody to get her audience to reflect on how they are implicated in the issues raised by her artwork. She believes it is important that people are aware of current events, and she hopes that her audience leaves her work asking questions and having conversations.

Reflecting on when she installed Breasts in the Press for Feminist And..., Cahill likened the environment at the Mattress Factory to a studio space: she could work but also mingle with the other artists. The installation period facilitated a communal space, which Cahill found very generative. Cahill could see other artists' spaces and chat throughout their processes, and vice versa. As an artist who lives in Pittsburgh, Cahill appreciates that during installation she was able to visit the MF frequently. Cahill offers, “It’s important to have frequent dialogue with other artists or colleagues, whoever they may be, to simply be more aware of what is going on around us and what others are working on.”

The audience for SHARE will also have the opportunity to converse after the presentations. The stories shared by presenters will set the scene for a rich conversation over a shared meal. With a metaphorical emphasis on the “. . .” part of the conversation, we will listen and learn from each other.

SHARE is free, but registration is required by April 8, 2013. Please call (412) 231-3169 or email felice[at]mattress[dot]org to participate.

--Posted by Danielle, Education Intern

"Screenings"—Q&A with Owen Smith, Exhibitions Manager

2013-03-26T12:14:00.000-04:00

Screenings is a new exhibition in the Mattress Factory’s lobby at 500 Sampsonia Way. The “screenings” are being created specifically for the space by six different artists from the U.S. and Canada. Already underway, each artist’s video will be shown for two weeks, the series ending May 23. I tracked down Owen Smith, Exhibitions Manager, for a chat about the series.

CAITLIN HARPSTER: How did Screenings come to fruition?

OWEN SMITH: We have had special occasion screenings in the past at the Mattress Factory, and we have this big, lovely screen, which is an under-utilized opportunity. I wanted to have something on the screen all day for the general public to see, so I took inspiration from our Gestures series and invited artists to do something quick and dirty, low budget…a gesture. The screenings are meant to be immediate works, more like loose sketches, and in doing so, the artist is forced to experiment and take risks, perhaps creating something that is different from their overarching perception of their own work.

I gave everyone carte blanche to do whatever they wanted—to program that screen, basically. I didn’t have any preconceptions of what I wanted them to do. I had only two stipulations: I asked that they create something new, and that whatever they created be silent.

CH: How did you choose the artists to showcase?

OS: I really wanted artists who came from all different types of background in video. For instance, Stamatis Marinos works primarily with documentary film. Tzarinas of the Plane are performance artists. Matthew Biederman creates computer-generated video installations. Carrie Schneider is a wonderful photographer. I invited a diverse group of artists in hopes that they create something outside of what they are used to creating.

CH: Can you talk about the first work of the screening series, Stamatis Marinos’ regeneration?

OS: Stamatis’ background is in documentary film. I was very pleased that he went outside his normal practice and created something more experimental. Stamatis took a clip from the Internet and appropriated it. He wanted time-lapse footage of something growing and dying. The two mushrooms shown on the screen were out of sync with each other as they grew and died. It was a very touching little narrative within the film. The individual grids on the screen were also out of sync with each other. What I found most interesting was that while it was silent, it was the equivalent of a musical round. When you sing a round, you are out of sync individually, but as a whole there is a beautiful rhythm that is created. The same goes for regeneration. It is a different experience depending upon how you focus your attention on it.

CH: Tzarinas of the Plane are currently screening their work now. What are your thoughts on their creation?

OS: Tzarinas of the Plane created two films, essentially. The first one, Mediation on the Making of Madness is a documentation of the two of them in free form—how they come up with their costumes and the process of how they work together. I wasn’t expecting that at all, but I was very pleased that they focused on that part of their artistic process. The second part, Ping-pong, is really interesting, especially devoid of sound. It is accelerated to a speed that, paired with its silence, appears very Charlie Chaplin-like. And I like the run around the table and never actually playing ping-pong. They obviously like to have fun.

Last Saturday, Tzarinas of the Plane came to the Mattress Factory for a special performance called, Bag Animals. Every spring in the artists' home of Detroit, plastic shopping bags will slowly appear as the snow melts. In their performance, Tzarinas of the Plane wore costumes made entirely of plastic shopping bags and acted like animals. Sometimes they were orangutans, sometimes squirrels, sometimes raccoons. At the very end of the performance they switched personae and started to beautifully play a concertina and sing opera. It was great. The best part is that I had no plan for Screenings to include live performance. It was just something that happened though the process of working with the artists.

CH: What can we expect from the upcoming artists?

OS: I am really not sure. That is the point, as well as the fun of it. So far I have had a documentary filmmaker create an experimental work, and two performers create a documentary work. Anything can happen.

The next Screenings installment, by Steve Summers, will debut Friday, March 29 and run through Thursday, April 11, 2013. For more information on Screenings please visit the Mattress Factory’s website.

POSTED BY CAITLIN
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TAHRIR: An interactive performance

2013-03-25T09:54:00.000-04:00

This Thursday, March 28, the Mattress Factory will host an interactive performance art piece, TAHRIR, written by artist L.M. Bogad, performed by Bogad and Tavia La Follette, and designed by Michelle Carello.

La Follette co-curated an exhibition, Sites of Passage, at the Mattress Factory in 2011. That exhibition was part of an ongoing project and larger mission to establish more connections between countries and cultures. Sites of Passage focused specifically on the Egyptian revolution. Larry said they chose to focus on Egypt because it is “the most compelling example of an ongoing revolution happening now. The events in Egypt can prompt us to ask larger questions like ‘how can people create a revolution for equality and justice, and can they sustain it in the face of the inevitable elitist reaction, fundamentalism, and militarism?’”

Bogad did an interactive performance, WELCOME TO OUR REVOLUTION: Testimony from Tahrir, as a part of Sites of Passage. WELCOME TO OUR REVOLUTION playfully explored seeing the revolution in action, since Bogad and La Follette were in Cairo working with artists there during the revolution in 2011.

This new piece, simply called TAHRIR, reflects on what has transpired since then with the Egyptian revolution, particularly on the currently grim state of affairs in Cairo, where protesters have been brutalized by the police and fundamentalist militias, and the ongoing popular uprisings in Port Said and other Suez Canal cities.

As with the other artworks in the Mattress Factory, TAHRIR is a site-specific piece. The piece will begin at dusk (7:41 p.m. to be precise), with a Ritual to Prevent the Sunset. The start time was specifically chosen because it can serve as a metaphor for the current, waning state of the revolution, as well as a last-ditch attempt to preserve its values and momentum. It’s important that the audience participates in this ritual because, “everyone who is involved will be equally responsible for stopping the sun or not. Trying to sustain a revolutionary spirit in the face of resistance can sometimes feel as difficult as trying to stop the setting sun, or holding back the sea with your hands,” explained Bogad. “If the artists and audience do not make astronomical history by stopping the sunset, the performance will continue in the darkness just as the struggle must continue in the darkness.”

The audience will also participate in “Economusic,” a concept Bogad invented and has performed in New York, Helsinki, and Sao Paulo, in which he creates music out of economic data. Bogad expressed that while these actions may seem absurd, they can create an understanding through personal experience. “Performance is a way not just of showing, but also of knowing. You can better understand an issue through performing it, experiencing it, as opposed to simply spectating.”

The artists and the audience will move inside and outside of the museum in the search for hope for the revolution.

The performance is Thursday, March 28 at 7:41 p.m. Tickets ($20 general admission/$15 members/$10 students) can be purchased by calling (412) 231-3169 ext 213 or by e-mailing felice@mattress.org. Pre-registration is recommended as space is limited.

--Posted by Danielle, Education Intern

Art Lab: Derek Reese

2013-03-11T17:39:00.000-04:00

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!

POSTED BY CAITLIN
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MF at 35: Barbara Luderowski

2013-02-14T15:29:00.001-05:00

We're celebrating a big milestone in 2013: the Mattress Factory's 35th anniversary! Our office has been abuzz with all of the wonderful things to come: our 35th Anniversary Bash next week, our Urban Garden Party: Soul Factory and Community Garden Party in June, the summer opening of our new building at 516 Sampsonia Way with an installation by Chiharu Shiota, our fall exhibitions Detroit Artists in Residence and Janine Antoni, as well as our 35th Anniversary Art Auction in October. So much is in front of us, we sometimes forget to look back at how we got here. If you know about the Mattress Factory, then you know about our founder, president and co-director Barbara Luderowski. Barbara, an artist herself, has a story for every year this museum has been alive. And then some. We caught her this week and asked her to talk about how the MF came to be, and this is what she had to say:

When I bought the Mattress Factory building 35 years ago, I had no idea that this is what it would end up being.

I was looking for a new space, because I had just had a show at the Carnegie Museum and I was seeking a bigger studio. As a sculptor, I envisioned a place where I could work with other artists, because at the time, Pittsburgh didn’t have a strong identity as a city with a community of artists. I came across this huge empty building, which had formerly been a Sterns & Foster mattress factory.

In the very early days, artists rented studios throughout the building, and we started a vegetarian co-operative restaurant to bring many different people together. We had a little bit of everything, good food, performance art, visual art, experimental theater, even a children’s theater group. There was a lot going on all over the place. It was a true collaboration.

I had absolutely no recognition, at all, that I was biting off more than I could chew. I just did it anyway. I didn’t have some grand vision all those years ago—I was just trying to create a place where I wanted to be, with other creative people. That place didn’t exist, so together we made it happen.

Even as we began to focus on installation art, we didn’t set out to become a museum. It happened organically. It came out of the energy of the art—the intersection of art and sculpture and architecture and sound and space and light. There wasn’t an end destination in mind. It has always been about the journey.

I got sucked in because it was a challenge, and it was a way to combine my interests in contemporary art, architecture, design, community development, and collaborating with other artists. When people said it couldn’t be done, we did it anyway. If we stumbled upon a problem, we went about solving it our own way.

Now, 35 years later, all I can say is, “to be continued…”

Barbara Luderowski

President and Co-Director

2013 URBAN GARDEN PARTY: SOUL FACTORY

2013-02-12T14:05:00.001-05:00

2013 URBAN GARDEN PARTY
SOUL FACTORY: MOTOWN AT THE MUSEUM
Friday, June 21, 2013
VIP 6PM | $250 ($200 for MF Members; email us for code)
GENERAL ADMISSION 7-11PM | $100 ($75 for MF Members; email us for code)

Join us Friday, June 21 for the Mattress Factory's signature fundraiser, the Urban Garden Party, chaired by Anne and Anuj Dhanda. The Urban Garden Party is the premier social event of the year, drawing more than 1,300 attendees to help support the museum's mission in a festive atmosphere. Marking the museum's 35th year in Pittsburgh's North Side in 2013 and looking ahead to our fall exhibition, Detroit: Artists in Residence, we look back to the innovative drive and unrelenting spirit surrounding our founding decades ago and recognize a kindred spirit in Motown--a place, a people and a sound that move us to celebrate ingenuity. Come groove the night away with us and toast to the creative minds that have become the heart & soul of the city!

General admission tickets get you into the hottest party of the year in the Mattress Factory's unique garden, with live entertainment, open bar, fare from over 40 food vendors and hobnobbing with Pittsburgh's art elite! VIP tickets open the doors to the exclusive VIP pre-party from 6 - 7:30pm, and then offer you access to the VIP Lounge--including a private bar, restroom and courtyard for VIPs only--throughout the night. Tickets sell out each year so don't wait!

All proceeds benefit the Mattress Factory’s artistic programs, exhibitions & education outreach.

Developing You Are The Artist!, an iPad app for 3 - 6 year olds

2013-02-08T17:24:00.001-05:00

The Mattress Factory is always interested in engaging new audiences and thinking about creative ways for our visitors to engage deeply with our collection and the idea of space. We are also interested in thinking about technology and using it as a tool to challenge visitors to think and experience our space in new ways. This has led to a new project that is made possible by an IMLS (Institute of Museum and Library Services) Sparks! Ignition grant. The first phase of the project is research and content development for an iPad application called You Are The Artist! for children ages three to six years old.

The app will encourage young people to “think like an artist.” The app we will build is not going to be a tool to quiet and entertain students. Instead it will require engagement between the child and parents, grandparents or siblings. The app will also ask the child to look more closely at the world around them and begin to understand how different spaces make them feel and how they can impact the space around them in the world.

We have just begun our research and are very excited about the enthusiasm and response we have received from our community. Many families have graciously donated their time to come and visit the museum and speak with our Museum Educators about that experience. We also hosted an Educator Evening where we invited Pre-K and Kindergarten teachers to tour the galleries and give us feedback about how they think their students would respond to our permanent installations.

We hope to learn more about the questions that parents, students and teachers have for each other while experiencing the Mattress Factory installations. We are gaining a fuller understanding of the learning that takes place in the galleries and how we can deepen that conversation through an iPad app.

The Education Team also hopes to use this valuable research and create other programs and materials for this age group. Experiencing the Mattress Factory at such a young age is an incredible experience and we hope to have more programming focused for 3-6 year olds soon.

In the meantime, if you are interested in helping us with our study, have been to the Mattress Factory and have young children, please take a moment to fill out a brief questionnaire.

--Felice Q. Cleveland, Director of Education

MF CraftFactory: December 15th, 2012

2012-11-29T14:38:00.001-05:00

Join us in the MF Lobby on Saturday, December 15th for a special holiday shopping event: the MF CraftFactory! Come explore hand-made arts created by MF Staff members, Educators, and Volunteers. Only $5 admission to the museum!

KitschDitch by Sam Ditch
MF Shop Assistant
A field of flowers, a figure, some glitter and thread. People found in forgotten Kodachrome slides and yellowing photographs. The work of Sam Ditch deals with memory and the forgotten - both in subject matter and material. Second hand fabrics, threads, and embroidery hoops are central to this series, which began in the Fall of 2009. Other wares include colorful modern earrings and vintage-inspired greeting cards.

Sam Ditch is a Bellevue resident, and a 2009 graduate of Slippery Rock University. Sam has exhibited work in the Pittsburgh area and currently has work for sale at Wildcard. She’s a collector of all things kitsch and an avid folk music consumer. When Sam is not making art or searching the thrift stores for materials, she enjoys reading sci-fi paperbacks and spending time with her pet fish, houseplants and her bearded counterpart.

Rose Duggan
MF Volunteer
Rose Duggan is a painter living and working in Pittsburgh who wants to help people find beautiful artwork for their home or business. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Allegheny College and now shows her work throughout the area, most recently in the Sweetwater Center for the Arts “Belly of the Beast” exhibition.

Her non-objective works play with two-dimensional space while addressing formal concepts in painting. The result is an exploration of the material distilled to line, color and perspective. In addition to original paintings she sells prints and greeting cards made from photos of her work. Paintings on commission are available. Rose is looking to work with interior designers, business owners and individuals to find artwork that adds joy to lives.

Claudia Giannini
MF Grant Writer
Claudia Giannini received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from West Virginia University and studied art history and museum education at Penn State, graduating with a Masters in Education in 1981. She has worked in several museums, including the Smithsonian, the Birmingham Museum of Art and The Carnegie Museum of Art.

Claudia received her Master of Fine Arts degree from West Virginia University in 1999, with specialization in printmaking and photography. She has held residencies at the Vermont Studio Center and Virginia Center for Creative Arts and participated in a residency at Artists Image Resource in Pittsburgh sponsored by the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation. Claudia exhibits widely and recently contributed 13 images to a book, Field Notes from Grief, with text by Judith Stitzel, published in 2012. Her work combines photographic and printmaking techniques, along with other media such as wax, collage, and handmade paper, to create images that explore our connection to the natural world.

Vanessa Kettering
MF Volunteer
As one of the oldest art forms, ceramics has a versatility shared with few other mediums. Vanessa's work is a conversation in form vs. function. Form, shape and surface decoration are combined to create objects that walk the line between usable and sculpture. Themes include the abstracted vase, drawings etched in clay (a technique she developed herself) and the never ceasing desire to push high-fired stoneware to its physical limits.

Vanessa Kettering creates her ceramic work at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, and is a member of the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh. A trained art educator, she works at an after school program in Regent Square and leads art classes for a variety of ages. She speaks some Italian and is studying Japanese language and culture.

War Admiral Press by Shannon Knepper
MF Graphic Designer War Admiral Press specializes in small runs of hand-cranked paper goods, with a touch of olde Pittsburgh. Her Pittsburgh Misses You coasters can be seen about town and her new line of silkscreened holiday cards will be unveiled at the MF CraftFactory. Get yours for the holiday season!

Nathan Lorenzo
MF Gallery Attendant, Visitor Services
Hi! My name is Nathan Lorenzo and with my art I strive to translate sounds into visuals. Although I typically work in digital mediums I will be offering several original drawings in ink, colored pencil, and graphite, for sale at the CraftFactory.

Please check out more of my work on my tumblr or feel free to contact me anytime for more information.
cakeosaurus@gmail.com
facebook.com/cakeosaurus

Maria Mangano
MF Visitor Services & Volunteer Coordinator
Maria Mangano makes art about nature, animals, arcana, and the dusty boxes of forgotten information found in the dark corners of libraries and museums. A native of Syracuse, New York, she moved to Pittsburgh to attend Carnegie Mellon University, where she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2006.

Mangano's media range from intaglio to relief printing, works on paper, and site-specific installations, each work addressing the cultural systems that affect our understanding of the natural world. She has exhibited regionally at the Chautauqua Institute in Chautauqua, New York, and locally at the Brew House Space 101, 709 Penn Gallery, Fe Gallery, and Future Tenant Gallery.

Lindsay O’Leary
Former MF Communications & Digital Media Manager
Lindsay O’Leary is an artist and technologist living in Pittsburgh. She learned to blow glass at the Cleveland Institute of Art and moved to Pittsburgh in 2002 to create glass art at the Pittsburgh Glass Center. O'Leary is also the Web Content Editor at Carlow University and spends her weekends working on home remodeling projects. She is fascinated with art, tech, and architecture -- particularly the intersection of the three.

O'Leary's works have been exhibited at the Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, the Brew House, PPG Wintergarden, and other galleries throughout Pittsburgh. She has also exhibited at UnSmoke Systems in nearby Braddock, Pennsylvania, and the Rochester Contemporary Art Center in Rochester, New York.

AC/VC by Derek Reese
MF Educator
Appalachians in Charge of Visual Culture is an artist group that focuses on crafts, wares, art objects, and small artwork on paper inspired by various aspects of Appalachian culture. AC/VC is a platform created for artists in the region who typically create artwork intended for the fine art market but who also have discovered an interest in creating less expensive, handmade merchandise that may bolster the artist's revenue and public awareness of their work.

AC/VC was created by artist Derek Reese as a way to showcase pieces of art from his body of work that are better suited for a vendor’s booth rather than a fine art gallery. He describes his merchandise as artifacts collected from, created for, or inspired by his large paintings, drawings, sculpture, installations, video, and performances. Derek’s studio is located at 131 7th Street in downtown Pittsburgh where he can be found creating artwork for his upcoming solo exhibition, titled WonderBred, which focuses on topics such as ecology, economy, and masculinity in Appalachia. To view Derek’s past artwork, biography, and endeavors past and present please visit his website.

Rosalind Santavicca
MF Educator
Rosalind’s watercolors find inspiration in many parts of the natural world from watching birds and gardening to walking on the beach. Birds, animals, herbs in the garden, and walking on the beach feed her imagination. Herbs to Watercolor, the current card creations, are made by applying paint to the herb plant and transferring the image to the cards. The larger matted and framed works are created using various watercolor techniques.

Rosalind works in her home-studio and has been painting for twenty years with a focus on watercolor. She studied at the University of Pittsburgh, Phipps Conservatory, and the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, as well as with the watercolor artists Marion Martino, Ann Payne, Frank Webb, Robert Bowden, and Don Andrews. She has exhibited in various venues in the Pittsburgh area, most recently at Boulevard Gallery in Verona, Pennsylvania.

Gina Tomsky
MF Shop Assistant
The work of Gina Tomsky deals mainly with encaustic. The ancient wax-based medium of encaustic paint is a molten bees wax mixed with resin and pigments. She incorporates found objects, handmade paper, mixed media, printmaking, and oils to create each unique piece. When combining encaustic with other materials, and techniques, her artwork takes on a sophisticated presence which allows the artist’s own life and art experience to shine through.

Gina graduated from Carlow University in 2010 with a degree in Art Education and is certified in Art Therapy. She currently resides in Lawrenceville with her partner and their pomeranian, Giuseppe. She enjoys drinking coffee, while shuffling her Pandora playlist, traveling, biking, and collecting salvaged objects to incorporate into new paintings. You can contact her via email: gtomsky@gmail.com

Emily Walley
MF Educator, Occasional Installer
Emily Walley is originally from Wisconsin, where she attended the University of Wisconsin Stout, graduating with a degree in Studio Arts. Emily relocated to Pittsburgh after completing graduate studies at West Virginia University with her degree in Fine Art, Intermedia. She has exhibited installation, video, and sculpture work at Union Art Gallery (Milwaukee, WI), Salisbury Electronic Gallery (Salisbury, MD), and Assemble Gallery (Pittsburgh).

Currently, Emily is collaborating with Pittsburgh artist and musician David Bernabo on a series of video works. David and Emily are participating in upcoming group exhibitions at ModernFormations Gallery and Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. You can also view her work on Etsy.

Ties That Bind by Ray Zarzeczny
MF Building Manager
“A little creative, a little weird, mildly outrageous and majorly scandalous.” With a creative mind and a desire to try and use materials from previous MF installations, Ray tries to create unique items. Many of the MF installations end up in his "Art Yard". Using these left-over installations, he creates new functional uses for them. A telephone pole has become a unusual sculpture, and a bench. Huge candle molds have become raised lettuce beds. Wood from the Kennywood Racer has become a makeshift bridge through his fruit trees. Port Authority bus seats have become patio seating and a bus grab rail has become a stair handrail.

Using rubber pond liner from a previous installation, Ray has created his rubber ties. These ties are all unique in their patterns and color. Other items include handcuff earrings and subversive cross stitch.

♥ We Love Our Neighbors ♥

2012-08-30T14:22:00.000-04:00

Did you know that the Mattress Factory offers half-off admission for our neighbors year-round? It’s true – all you need to do is show us a valid ID displaying a 15212 or 15233 zip code, and we’ll take 50% off your general admission price.

Wish exchange dandelion by Ling He, on view through January 6th, 2013

You know what else? Now any guest who presents their Access / EBT card can receive admission for up to four people at only $1 each. Just present your card and a photo ID at the front desk to receive the discount. For only $1, you can see all of the museum's installations, including those in our upcoming exhibition Feminist and...

Just one week away!

We know cash is tight for almost everybody these days, so we’d like to make the museum as accessible as possible in any little way we can. We offer discounts for students and seniors, and of course, kids under 6 are always free!

Fourteen musicians, sixteen days, one beautiful album

2012-08-10T14:37:00.000-04:00

Back in the summer of 2010, our then Curator-in-Residence Mark Garry invited musicians from Berlin, Dublin, London, and Brussels to collaborate with some of Pittsburgh’s own virtuosos here at the Mattress Factory. The result was a two-week long residency during which time our fourth floor was transformed into a fully functioning recording studio, and music could often be heard traveling through the halls of our galleries. The residency culminated in a live performance of the music they had created together. And now, two years later, the full-length album of this collaboration is finally completed and available for download.

Sample a track from A Generous Act

A Generous Act contains 14 tracks that call to mind bands like Air, The Books, and Kid A-era Radiohead, while somehow retaining a sense of the unique circumstances under which the album was created (one track is named “We Like Being In Kusama"). It really is something special. And the best part is, proceeds from the album go right back into MF’s exhibitions and programming so we can keep doing what we do.

"This is the first time that a museum of contemporary art has supported a project like this, and I am so pleased that the recordings of 'A Generous Act' have managed to contain the amazing energy we all experienced during those two special weeks in Pittsburgh," shares Mark Garry, Curator-in-Residence for the project. "I really want to thank the directors, staff, and board of the Mattress Factory for supporting this project, and I especially want to thank all of the musicians – and Fabien Leseure, the sound engineer – for making the most of this unique and remarkable situation."

Click here to download!

Download 'A Generous Act'