RECAP // Mini-Factory: PLACE!

In a recent Mini-Factory program we discussed the idea of PLACE … what is a place? … who fills this place? … what objects are in this place?  Sometimes looking at objects can give us clues about a place, telling us more about who lives there and what the place is used for. We can also take a walk in our neighborhood and look up, look down, look all around … a neighborhood is a PLACE too.  And that is exactly what we did in Mini-Factory as we walked to 516 Sampsonia Way to look at Chiharu Shiota's installation Trace of Memory. Shiota is an artist who entered an empty building and allowed her imagination to lead, weaving together the memories of lives and events which may have once existed in this PLACE.  Objects such as suitcases, books, chairs and a bed give us clues and guide our imaginations to create a story for this PLACE, the woven yarn visually connects these rooms and objects.  And that is what is so very unique about the Mattress Factory, it is a museum where art is created for a specific PLACE, perhaps a room, an elevator, building, or a wall.

  

After visiting Trace of Memory, Mini-Factory wrapped up with a good book and a PLACE making activity.  Every young artist was given a different color ball of yarn and allowed to weave, twist and thread it through our mobile pop-up space in the lobby.  We created a PLACE at the Mattress Factory!  The young artists chose objects to add to their space, connected by the yarn, creating their own story of a PLACE.  

Mini-Factory is a FREE interactive learning program for children ages 3 - 5 years old and their parents or caregivers.  Using contemporary installation art, parents and children will explore new ideas and concepts from the everyday world. Check out upcoming Mini-Factory dates and themes here. E-mail education@mattress.org for more information or to register for an upcoming program.

PREVIEW // ARTLab: Experimentations with Kathleen Montgomery!

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. Come early and you can catch the FREE drop-in tour at noon, led by one of our museum educators.

This weekend, we’ll be joined by artist in residence Kathleen Montgomery for ARTLab. Kathleen allows her own intuition to lead while working with raw materials. In her installation Body Memory Architecture, you’ll find natural abstract shapes made of earth, plaster, wood, wax, as well as prints and drawings, as she explores the dialogue between each form and the space around it.

On the second floor of the museum's 1414 Monterey Street galleries, you’ll find Kathleen’s drawings that were created while listening to theremin music. A theremin is a type of electronic instrument that creates sound depending on how close you are to the antennae on the instrument. While listening to this music she responded to the vibrating quality of the sound with her body and arm movements, creating the drawings you see here.

In ARTLab, we’ll have a real theremin set up for visitors to play with, and visitors can use paint brushes and wear blindfolds and create drawings in response to the sounds of the theremin. Through this process, visitors will be able to get in touch with their body and senses and create something spontaneous and unique.

See you there!

RECAP // After School @ The Factory: Fall 2014!

The After School program at the Mattress Factory has been awesome this season!

Pittsburgh-based artist Celeste Neuhaus designs projects and activities for the stellar kids enrolled in the fall session, entitled SPACE EXPLORATION. All of the activities center around the museum’s current exhibitions and permanent installations. Each week there is a new exhibit and idea to explore, always focusing on mind how we experience the space around us.

Each week when the After School students visit the museum they are considering what installation art is and how different artists use space.

Each day in After School follows a pattern. The students arrive and sit down for snacks and homework time together before visiting a new exhibit, discussing the work, and then making works of our own inspired by the installation. The students have been exploring the museum, thinking critically about the work, and translating ideas into their own installation-inspired art each week--it has been a blast!

Students have had a great time visiting a different exhibit each week. So far they have made up stories about who might live in RyderHenry’s fantastical city, created their own Yayoi Kusama inspired polka dot installations, and even had a sit-down discussion with the artist Danny Bracken after experiencing the double rainbow in his installation What Does It Mean?

As this session is drawing to an end, the kids are getting more and more excited about the Celebration held the last day of the fall session, the students invite their friends and family into the museum to see all the amazing art they have been working on and the installations they have been seeing and interacting with each week.

It is sad to see the term ending but we know we will have an amazing adventure with After School in the Winter and Spring of next year! 

RECAP // ARTLab: Projector Animations + Storytelling with Karen Forney

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: WORD BALLOONS! with John Peña
John Peña’s Word Balloons is a striking new piece at the Mattress Factory. It is a physical manifestation of the artist’s vulnerability during his creative process. This physical translation of emotions in the form of cartoon word bubbles confronts the viewer in enormity of size and simplistic design.  The piece consists of two “balloons” crafted from extruded foam, plaster, wood, and screws, each with a statement painted on the surface. The first confronts the viewer as he/she exits the elevator.  At three feet, it the original prototype for the 12 by 6 by 9 foot balloon that fills the adjacent gallery.  The balloons are supported by wood beams, highlighting the weight of the words.  Peña is expressing his emotional challenges while working as an artist and also stressing the impact of the words we all speak and their effect on the world.

Visitors participating in ARTLab were given two-dimensional paper word balloons to write on and post throughout the galleries.  This externalization of a visitor’s internal experience of viewing art emulates Peña’s Word Balloons, temporarily leaving a physical trace of personal reflection on the museum. 

 


Next ARTLab: Projector Animations + Storytelling with Karen Forney
Saturday, November 15, 2014
1 - 4pm
FREE with museum admission

Karen Forney, Mattress Factory museum educator and local comedic improviser, will demonstrate how to use an overhead projector, cut paper, transparencies, sharpies, and found objects to create low-tech animations and shadow puppetry. You'll also get a chance to improvise a crazy story right on the spot with your creations, with some enthusiastic coaching from Karen! Bring your devices and film your creations and in no time you'll be an instant animator and storyteller. Tweet or Facebook your creations so the Mattress Factory and the world can laugh along with you at your spontaneous art!

The most wonderful time of the year is right around the corner.

As a completely customizable venue that allows for completely creativity, the Mattress Factory is one of the most spectacular event spaces in Pittsburgh. All-new, very special entertaining packages are now available just in time for the holidays.

The best part? You can add artistic, hands-on activities to any events package and make your celebration truly memorable. 
Gallery tours. Educator-led workshops. Installation labs. Have other ideas? We're here to listen.

For more information, contact the MF Events Department at events@mattress.org or call 412.231.3169.

RECAP // Factory 500: Etna Studio Tours

The Factory 500 member group visited Etna on Saturday, October 18th for a tour with local artists, a behind-the-scenes visit with an atelier, and topped off with drinks at a local bar.


The first stop was Etna Studios, with artists John Clines, Sally Hardon, Sandy Kessler Kaminski, Paula Klein, Lisa Koi, Rise Nagin and Kathy Stept. Each artist was on hand to give a tour of their space and discuss their work.

Artist Sandy Kessler Kaminski shows prints to the Factory 500 members.

The second stop for the afternoon was River Projects, a company formed in 2014 by Brian Reneski and Mark Barill. Brian is also the US Representative for Beyer Projects. Beyer Projects produces sculptures and limited editions for many artists, including Anish Kapoor and John Baldessari. Mark and Brian gave the members an overview of the work they have created, from large installation pieces for Beyer Projects to Mark's detailed museum dioramas.

Brian Reneski discusses some of the work in their studio.

The last stop was E Town Bar and Grille, where the members enjoyed pumpkin beers and some of the best homemade mozzarella sticks and fish sandwiches in town.

The members relaxed in E Town's back room.

Thank you to everyone who came to Etna on October 18th! You can see more photos from this–and other Factory 500 events–on our Flickr page.

Factory 500 is the museum's premier membership program, chaired by Susan Lammie. The group tours private collections, artist studios, local businesses and other arts destinations in Pittsburgh several times throughout the year. Don't miss out – join now!

See you at the next event!
Abby
Membership Coordinator

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.