4 Culture’s SITE SPECIFIC Network is really pulling no punches this summer with surprising and innovative temporary public art. Look at Celeste Cooning’s lovely installation….
Mater Matrix Mother and Medium is once again on the move this summer, as part of 4Culture’s SITE SPECIFIC network, this time to Issaquah Washington. The Issaquah Arts Commission has invited myself and artist Paul Margolis to be artists in-residence at the beautiful park at the historic 19th-century Pickering Barn, as we reinvision MMMM from August 17th – 26th, right adjacent to one of the widest and most pristine sections of Issaquah Creek.
In support of this ever-changing artwork, the Arts Commission will host me at three community crochet events throughout this summer at various locations around Issaquah. Please come to the first Community Crochet event on July 2nd during ArtWalk Issaquah, from 5-9pm, at the old Lewis Hardware in Historic Downtown Issaquah, the future site of the artEAST Art Center.
This free crochet workshop is for anyone and everyone to join in the continued creation of this large 225-foot community project. All skill levels welcome, especially beginners, I’ve even taught four year olds to crochet! All materials provided. Drop in or stay for a while.
Each time this giant fiber river is installed, the installation is reinvigorated — new pieces are added, old ones transformed, with the river taking on the shape of the landscape it is contained within, just as water does. Please join in!
Sponsored by the Issaquah Arts Commission and 4 Culture SITE SPECIFIC. Special thanks to artEAST.
WORKSHOP
DATE: July 2nd, 2010
TIME: 5-9pm
LOCATION: Lewis Hardware (artEAST’s future Art Center)
95 Front Street North
Issaquah, Washington 98027
If you’d like to keep abreast of the movements of MMMM, join the Facebook page!
boxed up, under 200 lbs.
I’ve really always wanted this for this project, and it’s beginning to happen. MMMM is hooked up with 4Culture’s SITE SPECIFIC program, and is starting to travel. Since the issues and questions behind this work aren’t really just bound to Seattle, it only makes sense for me to try to bind as many people together as possible, from art curators, administrators and artists to a seniors knitting club from Georgia, to preschoolers to art bloggers .
at Agnes Scott College, Atlanta
Issues such as what makes community happen, what has happened to the “sacredness” of water that ALL of our human ancestors felt, what happens when you sit and talk with people you don’t know, what happens when you try to do something you’ve never done before and what happens when you just go with the process rather than product….I’d like to see what happens when I put these questions to as many different people as choose to jump into this.
I also want to see what happens when the piece ages. One of my main conceptual influences was, afterall, the Clootie Well, where the very magic was in the rotting of the cloth, the knot unbinding. What will it look like when some parts of the river are a few years old while others are new? The piece came back from Atlanta with a slight but beautiful sun-bleached feel (please someone help me find a way to put this up in the desert!). It also had the invigorating smell of laundry dried on the line when it returned from Atlanta, while the Seattle woods left it with the musky smell of moss and fire. What will it smell like after Issaquah, Wa. and NYC (it’s going to both places!)
But first it’s going to interact with another artwork bound to the earth, Herbert Bayer’s Earthworks in Mill Creek Canyon in Kent, Wa., and part of Kent Arts Commission’s Earth Day celebration. I’ll be installing it in the park from April 17th until Earth Day. But before that, on Sat. April 10th, the Kent Senior Center, across the street from Earthworks Park, will be hosting me for a community crochet event.
So, please Kentians, come add your knots and loops to this growing piece!!
–Workshop Date: April 10, 2010
–Workshop Location:
Senior Activity Center , ROOM 6
600 East Smith Street, Kent, WA 98031
253-856-5150
-Time: 12 noon – 4pm
As always, all skill levels welcome, all genders, all ages, all backgrounds! If you take a few deep breaths with me, anyone can crochet. And thank you Renaissance Yarns, in Kent, for posting about the event!!
celebrate those flowers
Back into the sun I go! Hopefully this slight cooling will hold tomorrow as I head to the Olympic Sculpture Park to participate in Seattle Art Museum’s family programs “Celebrate Wildflowers” event. Back in April I took part in “Climate Day for Kids”, had a blast, and I’m sure this event will be just as fun. Here’s a quick look at all the activity stations for tomorrow:
Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, King County Noxious Weed Board, Seattle Art Museum, Skokomish Tribe, TASTE Café, University of Washington Botanic Gardens Education, Washington Native Plant Society, Washington Rare Plant Care and Conservation.
Please come join me! And also, a huge thank you to writer/artist/curator Sharon Arnold for her continued enthusiasm for MMMM (and help crocheting AND yarn donations AND cheering me on in this last leg of this art marathon!)
Thanks Sharon!
She has been posting about the project, including tomorrow, at her blog “Dimensions are Variable”. Check it out and her posts about art – writing, making, viewing and loving.
SUNDAY! I’ll be back at the Sculpture Park on my own, inviting you to join me in a little handwork, amazing views and hopefully cool and sunny weather. I’ll be in the Cafe if another windstorm blows through. 10 am – 2pm.
MONDAY!! You can catch up with me on Monday, of all days! During lunch 11 am – 2 pm, I’ll be back under Leo Berk’s conference room cloud in the 4Culture conference room. All my blue looked so good under his blue, and I forgot my camera last time, so Tina Hoggatt made it happen for me again! If you work downtown, hope you can stop by, bring your lunch!
Leo Berk, "Low Ceiling"
I’m not quite willing to say these are the last events I’ll be scheduling … it’s all gone by so fast! And I have at least 60 more feet to make! But, these are some of the last events, so if you are curious to experience what this is all about, get out your calendar and see what works!
See all the events here.
130 feet, approx.
mater matrix mother and medium 