About the project

Zoe Scofield

 

Mater Matrix Mother and Medium is a process-based temporary public art installation by Seattle-based installation artist Mandy Greer (that’s me).

This is my blog about the process of creating my newest project — an installation woven into the trees of Seattle’s urban forest, a 200-foot-long Fiber River, and the embodiment of that river in a performance, later this summer, by visionary choreographer and dancer Zoe Scofield.

This new work is commissioned by Seattle Public Utilities 1% for Art Funds, and administered by Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, as a way to celebrate and interpret the splendor of Seattle’s urban creeks and encourage community involvement in the stewardship of our essential watersheds.

The Process

One of my strongest desires for this project is to bring its making out into the community, rather than solely behind studio doors. For the past several years creating my large installations has involved, in some part, asking for volunteer help from friends and acquaintances in my studio. The flow of conversation that always happens while people are working with their hands has always intrigued me; I’d like to open up that conversation on a larger scale with the people in all our communities in Seattle. This project is about opening up the process of creating of an artwork to Seattle citizens, rather than an object just showing up in a park one day. Throughout the spring and early summer, you can watch me and join in the building of a river of recycled fabrics and yarn. Small tiny gestures of the hands will transform mundane materials like old clothes into something fantastic, a glowing blue river literally woven into the trees. Then we can watch as Zoe Scofield, an ordinary woman of flesh and blood, transforms herself into something both delicate and ferocious.

(more to come!)

This page has the following sub pages.

• How you can join in!
• Thanks for contributing!
• Performance and Artist-in-Residence Info