PREVIEW // ARTLab: Building a City With Ryder Henry!

This Fall, the Mattress Factory is offering ARTLab programs with each of the artists exhibiting in the museum's Artists in Residence exhibition. ARTLabs are programs for all ages + FREE with museum admission. Read on to learn more about the first ARTLab in the series, and what to expect from the next.

 

PREVIOUS ARTLab: Humans+Nature+Technology with Danny Bracken

Danny Bracken considers the integration of technology and nature in our lives in his new work at the MF. He encourages playful exploration of his work along with the idea of how awe-inspiring both technology and nature are capable of being.

One of the pieces in Bracken’s installation, Again and Again, encases an interactive screen and video inside a rocky mountain. The screen shows video feedback—similar to the audio feedback you hear when a microphone is put next to its own speaker. In his piece, Danny Bracken’s feedback is visual, the recording is of the screen that is showing what is being recorded, it’s a loop! The light and design that show up on the screen is fluid and whimsical and you can change it by moving your hands between the video recorder and the screen. Danny Bracken set up a different video feedback loop in the lobby just for ARTlab last Saturday. Visitors checked out Bracken’s exhibit in the basement gallery. They interacted with the feedback loop, investigated a unique indoor double rainbow and watched the green grass grow. Then visitors came back upstairs and played with more video loops while interacting with the artist himself.

NEXT ARTLab: Building a City with Ryder Henry
Saturday, October 18, 2014
1-4 pm (with drop-in tour starting at noon!)
FREE with museum admission

In his piece entitled Diaspora, artist Ryder Henry builds a miniature city constructed out of recycled materials. He meticulously uses a formulaic construction of his own design that does not comply with what typically constrains our understanding of cities and the world. It is this combination of Ryder’s explicit imagery and outlandish ingenuity that results in a captivating installation.

At the ARTLab on October 18, you can experience Ryder’s artistic process first hand. Come and interact with him and create your own building using his method. In his piece, Ryder uses materials such as gum wrappers, cigarette boxes, and shopping bags. To him, the simplicity of these materials is a fundamental theme in his artwork. During ARTLab, guests will use his much sought-after and—in his words—“perfect” material: Trader Joe’s coffee cans. Collectively, participants will create a community that echoes Ryder’s work.

Be sure to join this Saturday's ARTLab, and follow the museum's Facebook and Twitter pages for more information. For the most up-to-date information about ARTLabs and other educational programming, please check the MF Calendar.