RECAP // Coffee Date with Anne Lindberg

On Saturday, October 17, MF members escaped the chilly autumn winds for a cozy breakfast chat with artist Anne Lindberg. Anne, whose work "shift lens" is on view now at1414 Monterey Street as part of the 2015 Factory Installed exhibition, shared delightful anecdotes ranging from her experiences at the Mattress Factory to the genesis of her striking thread-installation works.

Members learned that "shift lens" was the first time Anne worked with daylight as an active component of her artwork. The installation process, which took a team of three people and only five days, involved responding to the ever-changing quality of light in the space, through choice of color and placement of thread. Barbara Luderowski and Michael Olijnyk, co-directors of the Mattress Factory, also shared insights into the building’s domestic history.

In between donut bites and sips of pumpkin-spice flavored tea, members peppered Anne with more questions regarding her previous works. One member asked Anne specifically about her 2005 piece Democracy, which drew from the political climate surrounding the Iraq War. Another person asked about her two-dimensional graphite drawings (which actually involve a custom-built 10-foot drawing board!).

Yet another member brought up the synesthetic qualities of "shift lens," which was well highlighted by the recent Art + Conversation, where Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra cellist Mikhail Istomin played a unique accompaniment to Anne's piece.

Interested in asking Mattress Factory artists your own questions? Check out the upcoming Coffee Date with John Morris this coming Saturday, October 24! RSVP by emailing caitlin@mattress.org. For more information or to become a member, please visit www.mattress.org. 

Coffee and tea was provided courtesy of Zeke’s Coffee and Arnold’s Tea.

PREVIEW // Art + Conversation

Anne Lindberg was inspired by a collaboration between composer Philip Glass and sculptor Richard Serra. The idea of marrying art and music inspired Anne and the museum to create a very special Art + Conversation program.

On Thursday, October 15th shift lens will be accompanied by a one-time-only performance by Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Cellist/Pittsburgh Piano Trio Founder Mikhail Istomin. Following, there will be a conversation between "Factory Installed" exhibition artists Anne Lindberg and Julie Schenkelberg where they will discuss their work and process in the lobby of 500 Sampsonia Way. There will be a cash bar and admission is pay-what-you-wish. The program is FREE for MF Members and students from Carnegie Mellon University, University of Pittsburgh and Point Park University. Space is very limited! RSVP today: http://bit.ly/1UT1afB

Anne's piece Shift Lens, part of the "Factory Installed" exhibition, was in itself a performance creating its own music as it was being constructed.

"So there is a gesture moving in two directions and the piece is viewable from one side, the outdoors is on the other side... The thread is held taut with staples and the line, in terms of a process, the lines that make up the work are stitched or threaded back and forth between the walls as if you are stitching the architecture. There is a person at each wall wielding a staple gun and there is a runner or perhaps one of us stepping down and moving the thread so it is a performance of sorts when it is being made, it makes a little bit of noise. This sort of rhythm of drawing back and forth and that performative quality is really interesting to me."


Julie Schenkelberg is also a Mattress Factory artist whose piece The Color of Temperance: Embodied Energy is part of the "Factory Installed" exhibition. Julie describes her process of collecting materials to compose her piece and the narrative she tries to convey to the viewer.

"Sometimes I explain my pieces as if they are tattered manuals and pieces are discarded or missing and then we have these objects in front of us that we're unsure how to operate. So I operate them the way that I would imagine and therefor pieces of molding become structure for the room. Dishes become pieces that support a chair ... You walk in and it's completely chaotic and it is totally blended together as the same symphony and it becomes this quiet moment."

RECAP // Mini-Factory: PATTERNS!

PATTERNS surround us in our world. They can be created using colors, shapes, and different sizes ... on our clothes, dinner plates and sidewalks, PATTERNS allow us to find repetition at its best. Thick, white stripes on a street indicate it is safe to cross. Rows of alternating red rectangles reach up to the sky exemplifying the craftsmanship of a multi-storied building (like the Mattress Factory!). Some artists use PATTERNS to convey feelings, set a mood, or shock our senses. Mini-Factory visited shift lens by Anne Lindberg. Using tightly pulled thread secured to each side of the room, a colorful yet surreal crisscross PATTERN is created. Light filters from the windows behind allowing colors to bend and play with your visual senses. The consensus? ... Very cool!

Yayoi Kusama uses polka-dots throughout her installations so viewers may experience her point of view - literally - and the ensuing feelings. What do you feel when walking through Infinity Dots Mirrored Room and Repetitive Vision? Calm, jolted, dizzy? The abundance of polka-dots plays a large role with how we feel in these installations.

PATTERNS also occur naturally, such as the lines in a blade of grass, the veins of a leaf and the speckles in a piece of granite. Our young artists were given magnifying glasses and asked to walk through Winifred Lutz's Garden in search of patterns. Leaves, bricks, rocks and water were inspected for naturally occurring PATTERNS - success!

Of course given the chance, these energetic artists love to create something new. Using their imagination and inspiration learning and observing PATTERNS, our young crew created their own installations with various materials such as yarn, stickers, markers, pipe cleaners and tape. There were PATTERNS of all kinds; two-toned stripes, colorful polka-dots, sparkling spirals, and more.

Mini-Factory is an 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. Join us at 10am on August 22, 2015 to explore the theme of SCIENCE.