Screenings, an installation of spontaneous film sketches inspired by the Mattress Factory’s Gestures series, was on view in the lobby at 500 Sampsonia Way in two-week installments March 1 - May 23, 2013. For this exhibition, six artists from diverse backgrounds including documentary, live performance, short film, computer interactive media and photography were invited to create a new work specifically for the Mattress Factory’s lobby screen. Each was asked to provide a quick and gestural “sketch” and encouraged to experiment outside their normal way of working.
Currently, two of the original films are screening in our galleries at 500 Sampsonia Way. Empire by Steve Summers and 8-bit Méta-matic (Tinguely) by Matthew Biedermancan be viewedthrough Summer 2013.
Feminist and..., organized by Guest Curator Hilary Robinson, Ph.D., presents new work by six women artists from throughout the world whose artistic practice shows that feminism is not a single-issue set of politics but rather a multi-vocal, multi-generational and multi-cultural evolution of thinking and practices.
Robinson’s selection of the artists, who worked in residence during summer of 2012, has been intentionally diverse; they represent different generations and hail from North America, Europe, and the Middle East. Some of the artists were practicing during the women’s movement of the 1960s and 70s, while others weren’t born until the heyday of the women’s movement was over.
**PLEASE NOTE THAT THE WORKS BY BETSY DAMON AND CARRIE MAE WEEMS ARE NO LONGER ON VIEW AT THE MATTRESS FACTORY. WORKS BY JULIA CAHILL, PARASTOU FOROUHAR, LORRAINE LEESON AND AYANAH MOOR WILL REMAIN ON VIEW THROUGH JULY 2013.
FEMINIST AND... IN THE NEWS
CAA Reviews, March 28, Feminist And… by Ann Sutherland Harris
Pittsburgh City Paper, March 20, Women’s Works by Nadine Wasserman
Rose Clancy is a sculptor, site-specific installation artist, and gardener currently working with the reclamation of neglected and unused urban spaces. Her work illustrates the ease with which a neglected, unproductive space can be nurtured back to a productive state.
Clancy's GardenLab@510, a Mattress Factory exhibition in a lot adjacent to the museum, is a working garden that incorporates art into the living elements of the space. This year GardenLab@510 will feature peas, radishes and broom corn, as well as structural sculptures crafted from bamboo and trees.
Sarah Oppenheimer opens apertures in existing architecture, modifying the recognizable modular units (such as rooms) that make up our standardized built world. Interested in the way that people navigate their environments through both familiar bodily experience and with the aid of navigational tools, like maps, Oppenheimer’s works alter the visitor’s experience and perception in the gallery space.
