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.”