September 20, 2014 ARTLab: Destroy This!

Our last ARTLab, Fill This Space!, included bubbles, projectors, and yarn. I think everyone had fun, because how often do you get to play with bubbles in a museum, or a real overhead projector? I think people should carry bubbles with them wherever they go.

 
During this week’s ARTLab, I want you to experience the joy (or perhaps anxiety) of defacing and destroying an object in an artistic way. We’ll be subtracting instead of adding!

I’m taking inspiration from permanent collection piece Trespass by William Anastasi for this ARTLab. This piece is so subtle that I wonder how many people actually see it. He took a rock from outside and scratched away at the wall in a deliberate way to create this:



He calls this type of drawing a Wall Removal.

When I look at it, I think about the ways we make art. The artmaking process can include addition or subtraction. When we add, we may be adding a pencil line to a piece of paper, a paint stroke to a canvas, or gluing a googly eye to a paper bag puppet. When we subtract, we may be whittling a piece of wood, we may be carving linoleum to make a block print, or, we may even be adding and subtracting simultaneously when we play with a big blob of clay. Those are all safe artistic mediums that we expect to consume and use for an artistic purpose. When you start to intentionally mark up or scratch into something that is whole and perfect, how do you feel about that? Is it art?

Let’s find out this weekend!

As always, ARTLab is free with museum admission, and is open to all ages, kids and adults! In addition, this Saturday will include our very first drop-in tour at noon! We’ll visit William Anastasi’s work in addition to Kathleen Montgomery’s new installation over at 1414 Monterey, and then we’ll head back to the main building lobby for ARTLab!

ARTLab programs are open to all ages and are FREE with museum admission!

-Karen Forney, Museum Educator

September 6, 2014 ArtLab: Fill this Space!

Last month on August 2, we had visitors fill the elevator with balloons! And on August 16, Penny Arcade Comedy filled the galleries with improv!

We have an amazing upcoming ARTLab program that asks: If it was completely up to you, and you could fill one of our gallery spaces with anything, what would you use?

During a three hour Install Tours, visitors participate in a project called "Install Boxes." After a tour and a break for lunch, visitors receive a small box, art materials and a word such as “old,” “itchy,” or “cold,” and they create their own miniature installation within the box that reflects what they think an “old,” “itchy” or “cold” room would be like.

The ArtLab program on September 6th will be an opportunity to do an install project right in the galleries. When you visit the front desk, you will become a Prospective Installation Artist, and you’ll receive a word for inspiration. During your visit you’ll discover three underutilized spaces that we’ve identified in the museum. These spaces will be an opportunity to experiment with a few materials and change the space, using the word you received as inspiration, or using your own creative ideas. Got even more ideas for the space? You can write down what other ideas you have for the space on a big piece of paper and brainstorm with other visitors. There are no right or wrong ideas - at the Mattress Factory, we want you to dream big, just like our artists!

 
This project is meant to be a glimpse into what the installation art process is like, and what the artist residency program is like at the Mattress Factory. All artwork you see at the museum is made especially for the museum right on the spot, using whatever materials the artist wants, be it wax or hard candy or thousands of matchsticks or hundreds of skeins of yarn.

But why should your installation ideas be limited to the Mattress Factory? Do you have a space in your house, apartment, school, office or community that could have potential for an installation? Show us what your ideas are through Twitter or Facebook!
  
ARTLab programs are open to all ages and are FREE with museum admission!

-Karen Forney, Museum Educator

August 19, 2014 ARTLab: Penny Arcade!

I’m so excited because this week for ArtLab we have Penny Arcade Comedy getting silly in the museum! Penny Performers Tessa Karel and Renee Rabenold will take inspiration from our permanent collection and create improvised scenes right in the galleries. You’ll have a chance to discuss the artwork and witness a one-of-a-kind theater and comedy experience that is shaped by your very own ideas! As usual, ArtLab is free with museum admission and is super fun for all ages!

Improv comedy is a type of theater experience where an entire show is made up right on the spot. Penny Arcade is a comedy show especially for children and families based out of Arcade Comedy Theater in downtown Pittsburgh. During a typical Penny Arcade show, the audience participates in “collaboration stations” which use crafts to make silly props and costumes and literary prompts like lines of dialogue or character names to help generate ideas that are used in the show. Because the show relies on audience participation, each show is unique!

As a museum educator and improv performer myself, I see a lot of connections between installation art and improv. An installation is not complete without visitors walking through and interacting with the artwork, just as an improv show relies on audience suggestions and engagement to give life and energy to the show. Both are site-specific: an installation is created for a specific location and is influenced by the space, community, and context in which it exists, just as improv show is shaped by the ideas that were generated at that moment by that particular audience and group of performers. Once an installation is taken down, it cannot exist anywhere else because it’s meaning and context would change, just as each improv show is only seen once and never seen again, because the chain reaction of ideas could never happen in the exact same way ever again. The ephemeral quality of both improv and installation art is what makes it very special. It also means your physical presence is required to fully experience both installation art and improv. Luckily our permanent collection isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, but the Penny Players will only be at the Mattress Factory for a short time so you better be at our ArtLab this Saturday at 1pm!If you can’t make it this Saturday, Penny Arcade will be performing in The Kids Comedy Cabaret, part of the first-ever Pittsburgh Comedy Festival! The show is on Saturday, August 23 at 1 p.m. at the Stephen Foster Memorial in the Henry Heymann Theatre. The Mattress Factory education department will also be there with an installation activity for audience members to build! The final product will give inspiration to the show! Both the installation and the show will be one-of-a-kind, and once the show is over, it will never be seen again.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the Mattress Factory this Saturday, August 16th and again at The Kid Comedy Cabaret on August 23rd for some art and some laughs!

   -Karen Forney, Museum Educator

December 7th: ARTLab & Animated Films

December7th Events:  ARTLab: Time for Music, and Animated Films by Ladislaw Starewicz with Original Live Music Performed by Little Bang Theory

Besides helping us keep track of when we need to wake up, to go to work, what day of the week to take out the trash and recycling (I ALWAYS forget the recycling), and when dinner is, have you ever stopped to think what this arbitrary thing called time is? Why is it important? How is it related to art, especially music? Can we stop time and turn music into a still, visual image? Join us on Saturday, December 7^th, from 1-4pm as we experiment with making visual art and music while contemplating time, as inspired by the work of Detroit artist Frank Pahl in the Mattress Factory’s current show, Detroit: Artists in Residence.

Frank Pahl, musician and visual artist, created an installation for the Mattress Factory that blends both music, time, and visual representation--a work that he hopes allows viewers to meditate on different aspects of time. 1913 Revisited in Three Parts refers to three events in history that Pahl interprets as significant changes in the way humans measure and perceive time:  the invention of Henry Ford’s Assembly Line--which hugely impacted industry and the economy; the global synchronization of time--an event that happened via telegraph from the Eiffel Tower and brought the whole world to follow one standard measurement of time; and the premiere of Stravinsky’s composition and ballet, Rite of Spring--about a pagan ritual of a young girl dancing herself to death to ensure the coming of spring, an extremely controversial piece of music in it’s time for it’s dissonant notes. For Pahl, these three events illustrate the relationship between Chronos and Kairos, words referring to ancient greek concepts of time. Chronos refers to chronological and measured time, while Kairos refers to a significant present moment, or a more organic concept of time. The invention of the assembly line and the global synchronization of time embody Chronos, and Kairos is embodied by Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. Using hanging wheels, lighting, automated musical instruments, and time itself, his work contemplates the consequences of perceiving and operating in the world through the quality of Chronos versus the quality of Kairos.

One could see the concepts of Chronos and Kairos as different conceptual tools we use to make sense of the stories of our lives and history of the world. Chronos may be used to order events and understand cause and effect, while the awareness of the present moment, and the significance of any action in the present moment, could be the faculty of Kairos. We can also use these concepts in creation of art. In fact, we have no choice--the process of making art takes time, as with anything else! In this ARTLab, visitors will make their own musical instruments from found objects and contemplate their personal relationship to music, art, and time. The creation and use of these musical instruments could also include storytelling, performance, history, or a contemplation of creating art itself. As always, ARTLab is FREE with museum admission and all are welcome to participate!

Since you’ll be thinking very deeply about time during the ARTLab, you’ll also want to note that at 7pm the Mattress Factory will host a special event that happens to be very pleasantly related to the ARTLab concepts of art, music and time:  An Evening of Animated Films & Live Music. With stop-motion animated films by Ladislaw Starewicz and original live music performed entirely on children's instruments by Little Bang Theory (featuring Frank Pahl) this event promises to be a very dynamic and entertaining experience for all ages. Tickets are $15, $10 for museum members. Tickets will also be available at the door.

Ladislaw Starewicz, The Cameraman's Revenge, 1912

Little Bang Theory at Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit, 2012

Family Day

November 29th is Family Day at the Mattress Factory! That means from 11am to 4pm we’ve planned fun activities for your whole family to come and enjoy. No extra charge - it’s included with your museum admission. We assure you that these collaborative activities are fun for ALL AGES and each one is related to one of the artists currently on exhibit in the galleries.

Some details on the projects:

Scavenger Hunt

Not sure where to start? Maybe this is your first time at the museum? Try the scavenger hunt first. This interactive activity is a fun way to get kids excited about exploring the museum, and together you can generate thoughtful ideas about the artwork that you see.

Gigantic Kinetic Mobile

Play with silhouettes and light as this large collaborative sculpture comes to light behind a curtain. Inspired by the work of Frank Pahl, an artist featured the current DETROIT: ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE exhibition in the main building.

Tin Can Telephones

Create and decorate your own tin can telephones and transmit your own stories and sounds with your family and friends, also inspired by a featured DETROIT: ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE artist Jessica Frelinghuysen.

Draw Clouds

Contemplate the sky and the outdoors and draw what you see. This project is inspired by Design 99’s solar and wind-powered installation Following the Sun 2 in the DETROIT:ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE exhibition.

 

Trace of Memory

Add your own web of yarn and weave in your personal trace of memories in a large collaborative yarn installation inspired by Chiharu Shiota’s installation Trace of Memory in the new 516 Sampsonia Way gallery.

Hot Chocolate Bar

There’s a lot of art to see and a lot of projects to do, so we know you’ll need a break at some point in the day. That’s why we made sure to set up a FREE Hot Chocolate Bar with all the fixins. That’s a treat you can really get into.

In addition to the activities in the lobby, we’ll have a lot of extra museum educators and volunteers in the galleries to help make the day fun and educational. Hope to see your entire family there!

November 16th ARTLab: Every-Body Draws

What does it mean to be connected to your own body?  How can you use your body in unconventional ways to create art?

November 16^th ARTLab: Every-Body Draws is inspired by Janine Antoni’s solo show Within, located in our 1414 Monterey Street galleries.

Antoni's artistic process is rooted in performance and gesture.  She describes her work as an exploration of what it means to be a woman and what it means to have a body.  Antoni’s show is an invitation for us, as the viewer, to connect to our own bodies and explore the interconnectedness of all things.

Janine Antoni, Graft, 2013

The resin objects on the second floor at 1414 Monterey Street were inspired by milagros, folk charms that are used for healing purposes.  In Mexico they are often in the form of tiny metal medallions representing different body parts like a leg, heart, hand, or eyes. In Spain, Portugal, and Brazil, they are often 3-dimensional wax or resin. For Antoni, the “act of making [a milagro] is a kind of prayer, a kind of intention.” Like creating a milagro, the way she approaches her work can be seen as a personal contemplation of her body. A crossed leg over a leg bone is one of the several resin milagro-inspired objects in Graft that contemplates femininity. The gesture of dragging female hip bones across wet plaster is what shaped the crown molding in Crowned as well as the clay vessels representing her artistic mothers in Gertrude, Mary, and Martha. The gesture of cutting a tree in half and piercing the trunk through the ceiling is a gesture connecting the tree--the source of the materials used to construct the building itself--as a metaphor pointing to the interconnectedness of all things to a source, just as we are connected to our flesh, our bones, and to others through the act of birth.

Janine Antoni, Crowned, 2013

In our upcoming ARTLab, visitors will discover that a gesture, a movement, or even an intention can be a process for creating art. In this installation activity, participants will experiment using branches as extensions of their body to move and create a collaborative drawing. Participants will also create their own milagros expressing thanks, making a wish for someone’s wellbeing, or happiness for themselves or others.  We will hang these handmade milagros in the garden when they are completed.

ARTLab is free with museum admission and is open to all ages.

November 2nd ARTLab Presents: Tied to Memory

If you were asked to draw or make a model of your childhood home from memory, how accurate would it be? What would your house include? Maybe more importantly, what would you FORGET to include?

Our next ARTLab is inspired by Chiharu Shiota installation Trace of Memory located in the Mattress Factory's brand new exhibition space at 516 Sampsonia Way.

When Shiota visited the Mattress Factory in 2011, she was inspired by the old Victorian rowhouse at 516 Sampsonia and curious about the previous inhabitants and their lives. “I work always with someone’s memory because it is strong and it exists but I cannot touch the memory,” says Shiota about her work in an interview with Felice and Shannon of the Mattress Factory Education Department. She describes her use of black yarn as a 3D drawing material that she weaves through the air to create space, and sees the act of weaving the yarn in these spaces as a way to give form to memory and create a new world. Human relationships are complex, and she describes the yarn as analogous to human connections:

“The string makes tension or is tangled or is loose. The string is like feeling or relationship to people, and the relationship is connected, or loose or tight. I feel like this is just like a mirror of my feelings.”

For Shiota, the yarn gives form to unseen feelings, memories, and history, and once the installation is cut down, the memory of the installation is what remains.

What we learn from Shiota’s process is that making art (through any medium) is a way of remembering. In our November 2^nd ARTLab, visitors will be invited to recreate a model of their childhood home, and through this process of artistic creation, allow the faculties of the brain that conjure memories and create art to work simultaneously. ARTLab participation is open to all visitors and is included with admission to the museum.

BONUS: Richard Morris is a former resident of 516 Sampsonia Way and shared photos of the house when it was occupied.

KAREN FORNEY, Education Intern

Extra-Curricular Interests:    Improv, biking, blogging, bikram yoga-ing, contra dancing, stand-up comedy, and quiet time.

What artists are currently in heavy rotation on your iPod?:    WQED. I love Gregorian chants, too.

If you could bring two things with you to a deserted island, what would they be?:    If it's a vacation situation, a hammock and a friend to snuggle. If it's a shipwreck situation, a hatchet and a friend to snuggle.

If you could have dinner with one person from history, who would it be and why?:    The Buddha, to ask if he could pass the salt.

One more thing we should know about you:    I've been volunteering at the Mattress Factory since 2007, and it has been RAD!


READ ALL POSTS BY KAREN

Visiting the Mattress Factory Museum's New Exhibitions!

Karen Forney, Mattress Factory education intern, shares her thoughts:

This is an exciting time at the Mattress Factory! If you haven’t visited in a while, there’s a lot of great new work to see: THREE brand new exhibitions across three buildings, and all included in your museum admission! That’s a pretty good deal don’t you think? To sweeten the deal, I wanted to share my thoughts on the new exhibitions to give you an idea of what to expect when you visit.

  

The first thing you will notice when you come to the Mattress Factory is a large brown creature in the parking lot. That Godzilla-sized chupacabra is actually a really big prehistoric sloth, a found object installed by artist Scott Hocking, one of nine artists participating in the museum’s residency program. It welcomes visitors coming to the main building to see the show Detroit: Artists in Residence.

DETROIT: ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE

500 Sampsonia

“Here to see the museum today? Great!”

Your friendly Visitor Services Coordinator, Maria, will welcome you to the museum, take your admission, and suggest you start on the 4^th floor and work your way down. So grab your handouts, affix your museum tab to your collar, and head up to 4.

As you step out of the elevator on the 4^th floor and let the doors close behind you, pause and listen; you’ll notice a variety of mingling sounds from each of the four new Detroit installations. You’ll hear a faint murmuring of voices and music from the hanging cans in Jessica Freylinghuysen’s My City is Your City, the chiming of clocks, bells, and excerpts of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring from Frank Pahl’s 1913 Revisited in Three Parts, the ominous clanging and buzzing of power tools in Nicola Kuperus & AdamLee Miller’s Diptyching, and, more subtly, the occasional clicks of heaters and electronic devices transforming wind turbine and solar power into heat that warms the Michigan picture rocks in Design 99’s Following the Sun 2. Sound is what linked these pieces for me.

On the third floor you turn to your left from the elevator to see Cured by Russ Orlando. A blue-lit room enshrines auto parts encrusted in salt, hanging silently from shiny new meat hooks. In contrast to the 4^th floor, this room is quiet. Dead quiet, except for the stray pieces of salt that crunch between the soles of your shoes and the white tile of the floor.

Scott Hocking’s Coronal Mass Ejection is in the Mattress Factory’s lower level, a space known for it’s original cellar-like stone walls. You’ll see more of the quirky figures and beasts similar to the sloth you saw in the parking lot: a pyramid of biblical-looking figures in the back of the room, dinosaur heads hanging from the walls, and a hot metal train car, also called a torpedo car, rests like the sunken Titanic in the middle of the floor. If you’re super sure nobody is looking, do you think you might be able to climb the ladder and look into the torpedo car itself for a better look? If you feel adventurous, and nobody is looking, you should go exploring.

JANINE ANTONI -- WITHIN

1414 Monterey

When you’ve finished seeing the Detroit show and head back to the lobby, Maria will check in with you to see how you’re doing and tell you how to get to the annex gallery at 1414 Monterey to see Janine Antoni’s solo show Within.

What interests me most about Janine’s installation is her use of vast amounts of beautiful empty space. The entrance features a completely empty room leading towards a massive tree trunk and root system that has been split in half--one half on the floor, the other half floating into the ceiling. What you will discover upstairs is that the tree passes completely through the ceiling and up through the floor to become part of the table holding curious cast resin body parts and bones in Graft. Hip bones appear in several of Antoni’s installations in the building, so be on the lookout: hip bones are what shaped the raku fired bowls in Gertrude, Margaret, and Mary, and what may seem like an unused room has a bigger surprise for those who are patient and take a moment to consider the space in Crowned. You may find yourself wanting to sit for an extended period of time watching Honey Baby, a collaboration with choreographer Stephen Petronio. That’s ok; it’s what the bench is for!

CHIHARU SHIOTA -- TRACE OF MEMORY

516 Sampsonia

First of all, this building is amazing, and I think this new installation is a lovely compliment to the previous installation at this site before the building was renovated. The previous installation, In the Dwelling-House, artist Ruth Stanford researched the previous inhabitants of the house and installed tombstone-like memorials in the windows listing each family members’ names and occupations.

Similar to Stanford’s work, the webs in Trace of Memory gives form to the unseen memories of this house. Every room is a cocoon of black yarn suspending different objects in each room – a desk, a pile of books, old suitcases, chairs, a wedding dress, a single pristine white bed. Exploring this house reminded me of the heroine in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey; I felt like Catherine exploring the abbey and wondering excitedly if it was haunted, if there were any secret passageways I could discover, and what really happened in this house so long ago? In my quest, I discovered a storage closet, the bathroom, and some quirky dead-ends that you’ll always find in a fabulous old house. Every ambient sound made my hair stand on end; was that just another visitor walking around upstairs, or a ghost? I could have walked forever through that building; the presence that exists in those spaces where Shiota has woven her webs is truly haunting.

For me, installation art is unique because it is experiential. Everyone’s experience will be different, and what activates the artwork is your participation. When you go to an installation art museum, you’re not going to just see the artwork. You are going to complete the artwork by interacting with it. I think of it as a collaboration with the artist. When you think of yourself as a collaborator with the artist, that immediately makes your participation important and relevant. And I think that’s awesome!

So, fellow potential collaborators, I’ve shared my experience of the new exhibitions; now I want to hear about yours. Come visit the Mattress Factory and get a chance to be a part of this great new work in Pittsburgh, and let me know what you think by e-mailing me at eduintern@mattress.org! And stay tuned to special events coming up including ARTLabs, performances, and other educational opportunities.

October 19th ARTLab: BEWARE! Haunted Factory Inside! KEEP OUT!

What makes a place scary? In our next ARTLab we’ll be taking inspiration from Nicola Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller’s Diptyching and create our own scary and usettling spaces. ArtLab is free with your museum admission, and we encourage all to participate… IF YOU DARE.

Since 1997, Kuperus and Miller have been recording and performing music videos under the band name ADULT., often performing a live soundtrack alongside their films. For their work at the Mattress Factory, their process started first with composing the music. Much of the inspiration for the installation came directly from Pittsburgh: the artists recognize Pittsburgh as a place with some of the best haunted houses, the façade design is taken from a house the artists saw in Troy Hill during their stay in Pittsburgh, and the horror effects in the video are a nod to the work of George Romero, famous for filming such cult horror classics as Dawn of the Dead in the greater Pittsburgh area. The artists used techniques from Tom Savini’s book Grand Illusions for the horror effects seen in their video. The artists wanted to create a piece that embraced the two poles of ridiculousness and seriousness, comedy and tragedy.

                            

As a result, Diptyching is a space that elicits multiple contrasting feelings. It is welcoming and familiar yet foreboding and unsettling. The motion-sensor spotlights may feel accusatory when they snap on as you walk up close. The pristine tudor-style façade is almost too perfect in contrast to the screams and construction sounds coming from inside. When you walk in, the door slams and locks behind you, corralling you and forcing you to walk through the space. The video embraces comedy and tragedy much like a cartoon; the construction worker characters bumble into construction mishaps, including bloody maimings, but the characters always reappear for the next bit, including the oldest joke in the book: the dangers of the misplaced banana peel. Depending on your constitution, you may find what you see hilarious, or you may find it gross or uncomfortable.

So what makes a place creepy for you? Why do we like to be scared? Come to the Mattress Factory and experiment with other visitors on October 19^th!

And keep an eye on the calendar - there’s going to be a spooky movie and live musical performance by the artists on October 31^st! There will be more details posted here soon!

After-School Program Launches at the Mattress Factory

For 12 weeks, 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th graders from Pittsburgh Allegheny Traditional K-5 are spending their Wednesday afternoons at the Mattress Factory with artist Ben Sota of the Zany Umbrella Circus!

Install: Afternoons at the Factory, funded by the Keith Haring Foundation, is a continuation of the Mattress Factory’s Summer Community Art Labs. The students participating in this free after-school program will experience an intensive exploration of the galleries that goes beyond the scope of a regular afternoon field trip. Led by Ben and Mattress Factory museum educators, students will engage in thoughtful discussion in the galleries that will inform collaborative art projects. Students will also spend some time completing their homework and enjoying some healthy snacks! Current special snack requests: pickles, pretzels, and pineapple. If you think their food tastes are pretty creative, then you should look forward to the art projects they create in the next few months!

The education model at the Mattress Factory seeks to mirror the exhibition model of its resident artists: providing a lab for artists to experiment, take risks, and explore their own artistic practice. The result is site-specific work that connects the artists and their work to the neighborhood. The after-school students, as residents of the neighborhood, get the chance to explore and engage directly with the museum, taking ownership of the institution as a community resource. The Mattress Factory Education Department hopes this program will help promote community engagement and showcase the unique education opportunities available to it’s North Side neighbors.

We’re looking forward to what Ben and the Allegheny Traditional students create!

Stay posted to find out about other Educational Opportunities. Feel free to be in touch with our Director of Education at Felice@mattress.org for more information about our winter and spring after school programs or other educational opportunities.