I am always amazed at how this on-going project seems to come to a moment of closure, and very quickly is pulled to expand in new directions beyond what I even considered! Mater Matrix Mother and Medium will be headed back this spring from NYC’s Cathedral St. John the Divine and evolving once again as part of the Next 50 program at the Seattle Center, as part of their Sustainable Futures focus area programing. I’m very thrilled to be a part of the Next 50 and the enormous amount of cultural programing, not just culling from the region’s creative thinkers, but from around the country. If you don’t already know about it, “the Next Fifty, (is) six months of events and activities planned in 2012 at Seattle Center that celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair, the legacy it left to the region, and the opportunities ahead during the next 50 years.” ‘Events and Activities’ doesn’t begin to sum it up, with this line up of focus areas, it would be hard not to find something to engage with:
- Arts Culture and Design
- Sustainable Futures
- Science and Technology
- Global Health
- Learning
- Commerce and the Innovation Economy
- Civic Action
- History
And Engage is what I hope to continue to do with several Community Crochet workshops on the campus during April and May, teaching anyone and everyone to crochet and adding all the stitches and contributions into the ever-growing fiber river. I’m also in the planning and development stage of some evocative new additions to this experiential public art work, that will once again allow me to explore a visceral response to site, history and probing our contemporary longing to re-connect with water in the way that all of our ancestors did; with a sense of reverence and respect. Stay tuned for the new MMMM program of events by connecting on Facebook or Twitter. I can’t wait! This feels like a full circle for this artwork, which began in Seattle in 2009 with a series of more that 30 community events and has since visited four other communities around the country.
As for the beginning of 2012, Mater Matrix Mother and Medium still winds its way through the Cathedral St. John the Divine in NYC as part of their exhibition and symposium “The Value of Water: Sustaining a Green Planet”, until March 25, 2012.
And please check out the new little MMMM book, which shares a sampling of the myriad of moments, hands and places that make this on-going process-based public art installation.
mater matrix mother and medium 