US Memory Maps

(Above)
Factory 14s paintings of US map from memory.

(Below)
"United Shapes of America," a painting by Kim Dingle based
on shapes created by Las Vegas teenagers when asked to draw the outline
of their country.

In the Dwelling House

What Remains

In 2004 the Mattress Factory loaned me 516 Sampsonia for the installation “What Remains.” For this work, I filled the window openings with granite inserts engraved with common cemetery imagery and the names, ages, and occupations of residents of the house circa 1900. The information about the people was gathered from census data, and the information is elegant in its simplicity and the archaic sound of the occupations. The information tells a story, though the details of the story lie in the imagination of the viewer. The people and their lives become the “past you did not know you had” from the Calvino quote. When I moved to Pittsburgh in 2001, having only ever lived in the south, I certainly felt surrounded by a past I never knew I had. What Remains was my way of making a small, overlooked part of that past a bit more tangible.

Ruth Stanford

In The Dwelling House

For “In the Dwelling-House,” I am doing an archaeological investigation of sorts, sifting through the things that previous occupants of the house have left behind. I have gathered a variety of “artifacts” and gone through every room looking for clues in the peeling paint, layers of wallpaper, crumbling plaster, newspaper clippings, etc. I have gone through hundreds of times, sometimes with a flashlight, sometimes with a camera, sometimes on my knees, and I still see something new every time. There is a beauty in the decay and a certain poetry to the way that time and the elements have altered a space that served so long as a home. My goal with “In the Dwelling-House” is simply to highlight a few of the details of the space that I find fascinating as a way to entice the viewer to take their own journey through the time and the space that is 516 Sampsonia.

Ruth Stanford

What Remains
Read the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Review
by Mary Thomas

Welcome to The Mattress Factory

Welcome to the Mattress Factory 14s Fall 2006 course:
Working with Installation Art. During the next 14 weeks you will experience first hand what it is like to be an artist in residence at The Mattress Factory.

We will meet working artists, take some field trips and investigate the museum's current exhibition and the artists involved. The course will conclude with the completion of a site-specific installation at The Mattress Factory.

Depending on where the interests of the group lead us, we'll explore ideas related to: performance art, sound-based art, video, movement arts, conceptual art, found objects and web-based art- starting with this blog.



James Turrell
Catso, Red (1967), 1994
Permanent Installation
Drywall, paint, xenon projector
The Mattress Factory
500 Sampsonia Way, 2nd floor

Light is a material with a three-dimensional quality in this cross corner projection,from the first series of light works Turrell made as a student.

He has learned to carefully shape (sculpt) light so that it takes on an almost solid form. In Catso, a red cube appears to be suspended in the corner of a room.

Turrell’s work involves explorations in light and space that speak to viewers without words, impacting the eye, body, and mind with the force of a spiritual awakening. “I want to create an atmosphere that can be consciously plumbed with seeing,” says the artist, “like the wordless thought that comes from looking in a fire.”