Screenings: An Installation of Spontaneous Film Sketches

Today (Friday, February 28, 2014) is the opening of the Mattress Factory's second edition of Screenings, an installation of spontaneous film sketches inspired by the Mattress Factory's Gestures series. This exhibition will run for 12 weeks, allotting three weeks per artist. Each artist is presented with the opportunity to create a new video work specifically for exhibition on the Mattress Factory's large projector screen in the first floor lobby of the museum. I had the chance to speak with Owen Smith, the Exhibitions Manager and organizer behind the Screenings series, to get some insight into the makings of the series.

Caitlin Harpster: What is the Screenings Series exactly? Could you provide some background information for how the series first came to be?

Owen Smith: Our first go at this series was last year around this same time (March 1 - May 23, 2013). It began as this idea to be able to better utilize the large projector screen we have in the lobby of the museum. I took inspiration from our Gestures series (which dates back to 2001) and thought it would be interesting to ask artists who may not typically work in this type of medium, to experiment and create a "film sketch" to screen in our lobby.

CH: This is your second Screenings Series. What made you want to do this again?

OS: We received very good feedback from the first series and I started thinking about the next. We have this great big projector screen and it's a great platform for artists to be able to experiment and take risks and create something that they normally would not create. It is also a fairly quick exhibition. It is only 12 weeks long, so it's sort of nice to have programming that rotates more quickly. The viewer can come back the very next week and be surprised to see something completely different than the week before.

CH: There were more artists in the last series. Was there a reason why you limited the number of artists from six to four?

OS: Last time there were six artists and the screenings ran for 12 weeks. That left only two weeks for each artist's work to be on view. Two weeks seemed too short. I wanted to expand the screening time of each film without expanding the exhibition time. Three weeks seems like a better balance.

CH: What about the artists?

OS: The artists I choose last year were from all different backgrounds in the arts such as documentary film, live interactive media, photography, etc. Three out of the four artists I choose this year specialize in some sort of film, whether it be experimental documentary like George Cessna, performative video like Di-ay Battad, or computer animation like Nate Lorenzo. I choose Delanie Jenkins specifically because her practice does not involve film or video. She is a sculptor. I am very interested to see what a physical sculptor will do in this situation.

CH: George Cessna is opening the series tomorrow. Can you tell us anything about what to expect?

OS: George's video is called I'm Not A Very Good Cowboy. It is a short quasi-documentary in the sense that it is about himself as a real subject, but it is also a performance by him. It is a silent video with subtitles, about four minutes long. He is struggling with this country-western persona that he has created for himself. I think a lot of people will relate to his search for a genuine connection to a thing he loves.

George Cessna, I'm Not A Very Good Cowboy, 2014, 4 minutes, silent video with subtitles

For more information on last year's Screenings, you can check out our posts HERE.

ArtLab: Projection Perception

This Saturday’s ArtLab will showcase Factory Installed artist Pablo Valbuena's video projection, Para-Site [mattress factory]. Pablo uses light and projection on a static wall to emphasize the preexisting architecture in the Museum. In doing so, he lays out the blueprint for an animated virtual space. At different times throughout his installation, it appears as if windows are folding and the space reflected by mirrors. None of these things physical happen; they’re all amazing optical illusions. Pablo explains his work as the "dissolution of the limit between real and perceived."

Pablo Valbuena's mind-bending installation, Para-Site [mattress factory]

This week’s featured ArtLab workshop leader is local installation artist and Mattress Factory Educator, Esti Piels. Esti will provide a video that the museum visitor will collaboratively create the context by drafting or illustrating a physical setting for the projection. Each visitor will be asked to view the video first and then create a composition or scene for the narrative to occur. This temporary "scenario" will be living for the duration of the brief projection while being video documented by Esti. She will then piece together each documented scene to create a feature length video collaboration. The finished product will be available on this blog in the near future.

 Pablo Valbuena's installation being enjoyed by Museum visitors.

Join Esti this Saturday and add your creative piece to this video collaboration!

What: ArtLab: Projection Perception
When: Saturday, May 5, 2012, 1-4pm
Where: In the Museum's lobby
Cost: Free w/ paid Museum admission


Left: Esti thinking hard about how to make 
Saturday's ArtLab fantastic

Go on and get down with your bird self

As I was sitting at my desk typing away the other afternoon, I decided to open the window and enjoy the soothing afternoon sounds of birds and flutes. Wait a second...flutes?

Upon further inspection I found none other than MF friend and Bird-musician Michael Pestel leading his KIDBOP children's workshop in the Garden below. The workshop has been a blast so far and along with movement artist McLean Danny and Butoh Dancer Taketeru Kudo, the kids have been learning all about bird sound and bird movement. Want to join in? Just give us a call, the workshop is running until July 1st and there is plenty of room and we welcome drop-in visitors!

The workshop is fun for all ages and even some museum directors

(MF Co-Director and Founder Barbara Luderowski pictured right)

Oh, but that's not all! (in my best Bob Barker showcase showdown voice) We've got some great performances lined up featuring the Big Experimental Bird Orchestra of Pittsburgh (BEBOP)! The Mattress Factory was pumped to team up with their Northside neighbors the National Aviary and the Children's Museum to bring this series of performances, as well as the KIDBOP workshop, to Pittsburgh.

Join us bright and early July 9th at 6 a.m. for a morning of musical performance with the Stray Birds Sunrise Performance. That afternoon, at 2 p.m., the kids from this week's workshop will be performing alongside BEBOP as KIDBOP: the Kids Incredibly Daring Bird Orchestra of Pittsburgh.

Can't make it this Sunday? No problemo my avian aficionado, on Friday, July 15th at 8 p.m. is the Stray Birds Sunset Full Moon Performance. Hang out with us in the MF garden for an evening of music and outdoor video projections of the BEBOP/KIDBOP project.

For a little taste of what you're getting yourself into, check out this video of Michael performing with some of his friends at the National Aviary:



So join us for some outdoor, musical fun July 9th and July 15th and get on down with your bird self!

Video of Pestel and Kudo Butoh performance on 6/26/11 by Renee Rosensteel

The KIDBOP workshop and BEBOP/KIDBOP performances are being presented by The Mattress Factory in partnership with The Children's Museum of Pittsburgh and The National Aviary. Funded by The National Endowment for the Arts and the Grable Foundation as part of the Charm Bracelet Project Fund.

Ten Days and Counting

Each year, on one special night in mid-June, we throw a fundraising event called the Urban Garden Party. And each year, we are overwhelmed by the outpouring of support for the museum expressed by the 1,000+ event attendees. It truly is an amazing evening filled with artistic energy, tasty food & beverages from more than 50 of Pittsburgh's top restaurants & bars, top-notch performances, and secret surprises.

This year's event is shaping up to be the best Garden Party to date. For a good sense of the vibe this year, check out this event trailer our awesome video production volunteer (!!) Abby Vanim created with a little soundtrack help from headliners Eclectic Method:



Without giving away too many details, the decor for the evening is taking shape as well. We have amassed a collection of more than 100 hubcaps and rumor has it there will be skateboard ramps and a fire hydrant involved. Check out these shots of MF Danny and MF Karla making tons of large scale origami that will accent the ceiling for the VIP Pre-Party:









If you'd like to attend the party, we'd love to see you there. We're running contests over on Twitter and Facebook from now through the event, so make sure you're keeping an eye on those streams. Of course, you can find out more information and purchase tickets HERE or by calling the museum at 412-231-3169. More updates to come!

POSTED BY JEFFREY Read All Posts by Jeffrey

Eclectic Method to Throw Down at the 2010 Urban Garden Party

It's been extremely hard keeping quiet about this the past few days, but the time has come and I'm really excited to share this tidbit of information with you. As you know, each year in June the Mattress Factory hosts our biggest and most important annual fundraiser, the Urban Garden Party. Every year becomes bigger and more over-the-top than the previous party, and 2010 is no different. This year marks the first time we've booked a headlining musical performer. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Eclectic Method.



Featuring London natives Jonny Wilson, Ian Edgar and Geoff Gamlen, Eclectic Method helped pioneer the emerging art of audio-visual mixing since first cutting U2’s Mysterious Ways music video with the Beastie Boys’ Intergalactic as an experiment back in 2002. The trio’s audio-visual mash-ups feature television, film, music and video game footage sliced and diced into blistering, post-modern dance floor events. It’s a cyclone of music and images mashed together in a world where Kill Bill fight scenes and Dave Chappelle’s Rick James rants are ingeniously cut and looped over bootleg samples, DVD scratches and pumped-up dance anthems. The trio was also recently featured in the documentary, Copyright Criminals.

SUMMER IN THE CITY: The 2010 Urban Garden Party will take place on Friday, June 18th. We're extremely fortunate to have an amazing Event Chair this year in Christine Astorino, a Mattress Factory Board Member and Founder & CEO of fathom.

Tickets to the Urban Garden Party are now on sale! Through March 1, you can get two tickets for only $140 (a savings of $40). And the best part? 100% of your ticket purchase goes back into the artistic programming here at the museum to help us continue to push artistic boundaries and produce cutting-edge exhibitions. Thanks in advance for your continued support.

POSTED BY JEFFREY Read All Posts by Jeffrey

It's All About YOU! Thanks.

Happy New Year everyone! It looks as though I have the pleasure of posting the first update on the MF blog for 2010. I'll keep it short and sweet, but all of us here at the museum wanted to extend a heartfelt thanks to all the individuals who donated to the 2009 Annual Fund, It's All About YOU, making it our most successful end-of-year campaign to date. Support from our friends and community makes everything we do possible, so we took some time yesterday to create the video below.

POSTED BY LINDSAY Read All Posts by Lindsay

LIKENESS Video Series: Jonn Herschend

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

POSTED BY JEFFREY Read All Posts by Jeffrey

LIKENESS Video Series: Paul DeMarinis

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



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

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

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

POSTED BY JEFFREY Read All Posts by Jeffrey

LIKENESS Video Series: Jim Campbell

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



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

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

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

POSTED BY JEFFREY Read All Posts by Jeffrey

LIKENESS Video Series: Tony Oursler

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

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



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

POSTED BY JEFFREY Read All Posts by Jeffrey

Notes From the Archive: Greer Lankton

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

POSTED BY LEAH Read All Posts by Leah

PodCamp Pittsburgh 4

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

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

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

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



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

POSTED BY JEFFREY Read All Posts by Jeffrey

Denver Broncos UK - FRIDAY SHOW SOLD OUT

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



            

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

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

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

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

POSTED BY JEFFREY Read All Posts by Jeffrey

2009 Urban Garden Party Trailer

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

POSTED BY JEFFREY Read All Posts by Jeffrey

Artist Spotlight :: Kate Joranson

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



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

    

While working, I:

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

    

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

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

Arts & Citizenship by Pittsburgh Filmmakers

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

POSTED BY JEFFREY Read All Posts by Jeffrey

GESTURES 12: Embeddable E-Flyers

We're ten days out from nearing the opening reception for Gestures: An Exhibition of Small Site-Specific Works, guest-curated by Katherine Talcott. Artists are installing in their space and the exhibition is coming along. Hands-down, my favorite time here at the museum is the ~ 2 weeks before an opening; artists are working, the galleries are buzzing with activity, everyone's creative juices are flowing, and the energy is infectious! Don't take my word for it, just check out Josh Tonies' video below. He's documenting his install via time-lapse. Great stuff.



If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know we rely heavily on the good word of our supporters to help get MF news out to the people. If you'd like to help support the cause, you can RSVP to the FaceBook event for the opening. Also, below are two different sizes of embeddable GESTURES e-flyers. Feel free to copy and paste the corresponding HTML code onto your blog or other social networking site. Or download one of the images and email it to your contact list. Anything you do is greatly appreciated!

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

<a href="http://artyoucangetinto.blogspot.com/2009/04/gestures-12-exhibition-of-small-site.html"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3543/3480276495_d92c2e5dcc_o.jpg" BORDER="0"></a>

--------

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

<a href="http://artyoucangetinto.blogspot.com/2009/04/gestures-12-exhibition-of-small-site.html"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3543/3480276495_996fc93b0d.jpg" BORDER="0"></a>

POSTED BY JEFFREY Read All Posts by Jeffrey

Greening the MF - Episode 1 : QR Codes in the Galleries

Throughout the month of April, I'm visiting with other MF staffers to talk about their everyday efforts to green the Mattress Factory. In this first episode, I chat with Jeffrey Inscho about the roll-out of QR codes in the galleries, an initiative intended to reduce the amount of printed gallery cards the museum produces and distributes. Up next in the Greening of the Mattress Factory series, I sit down with Barbara Luderowski to talk about the retro-fitting of museum properties and environmental aspects of new MF construction.



If you can't see the embedded video above, CLICK HERE to open a new window.

UPDATE (4/3/2009) - QR Codes: A Visitor Resource Guide

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POSTED BY LINDSAY Read All Posts by Lindsay

RHYTHM & TEXTURE: The Sculptures of Thaddeus Mosley

Robin Rombach/Post-Gazette

MATTRESS FACTORY DISPLAYS THE FLUID SHAPES OF THADDEUS MOSLEY
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
By Mary Thomas, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Several years ago, upscale fashion designer Bill Blass dropped by the Carnegie Museum of Art while on a business trip to Pittsburgh. Looking at the collection, he said "Georgia Gate" by Thaddeus Mosley was "the finest thing in your museum," then-museum director Leon Arkus told Mosley later on the phone.

"You should have told Mr. Blass I have one of his jackets," the North Side artist recalled with a characteristic warm smile and laid-back humor.

Mosley, who enters his 83rd year in July, is accustomed to accolades, accepting them graciously, almost bemusedly.

The most recent is a two-floor solo exhibition, "Thaddeus Mosley: Sculpture (Studio/Home)," that opens Friday night at the Mattress Factory.

A New Castle native, Mosley entered the Navy after high school and served in the South Pacific during World War II.

"It was segregated. We called it the Black Navy. This is the way America was then," he says.

After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh, where he majored in English and journalism, Mosley supported his family by working for the U.S. Postal Service. But the muse visited him during his free time.

A jazz aficionado, Mosley was reading Marshall Stearn's book, "The Story of Jazz," in the early 1950s when he came across a photograph of grave markers in a Georgia cemetery where slaves had been buried.


Click image above to view a video interview produced by Nate Guidry.

"The moment I saw that picture I thought of [celebrated Romanian sculptor Constantin] Brancusi's 'Bird in Space' sculptures," Mosley said during an interview for "Thaddeus Mosley: African-American Sculptor," a 1997 book about his work written by David Lewis and co-published by the Carnegie and University of Pittsburgh Press.

"Straight away I thought how the slaves who made those staves and Brancusi had never known each other existed, had never seen what each other did. Yet in each of them I saw a similar spirit, a similar approach to clean, fluid shapes coming from people working close to the earth and trying to fuse the earth and human spirituality into a single form."

Those forms "heavily influenced" the Carnegie sculpture, and four other "Gate" works, two of which are in the show.

They don't all look alike, Mosley says. The connection is "a feeling, rhythm and textures, that sort of thing. Repetition. Concentric effects. Mostly it's a weight and space concept. You should get a sense of levitation, a feeling of movement as you walk around them, because of their weight and space."

As he talks, Mosley moves through a forest of sculpture, some of it nearly twice his height, each piece unique. He typically creates abstract wood sculpture (but employs other materials), given texture by varying patterns gouged into the surfaces.

But a sinewy elongated form of a woman twines among vines gathered along the nearby Allegheny River in one sculpture, and a suggested truncated figure rises from a component inspired by a Dogon stepladder in another.

Three are anti-war pieces made in response to Iraq, including the thorny "Weapons for Mass Protection," and bone-accentuated "Tooth for Tooth" that was exhibited by the CUE Art Foundation in Chelsea, New York City, in 2004.

Of the approximately 80 sculptures displayed, about 30 have never been exhibited and 40 have not been shown in Pittsburgh. Most were made between the late 1990s and last month, and "represent 70 percent of what I've done in the last 10 years," Mosley says.

Museum co-directors Barbara Luderowski and Michael Olijnyk were inspired to do the exhibition by a visit to Mosley's art- and memento-filled Mexican War Streets home, a few blocks away. | CONTINUE READING |


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