Neighbo(u)rhood
dal 12/5/2011 al 20/8/2011
Segnalato da
Glenn Loughran
Ferhat Ozgur
Seamus Nolan
Sarah Pierce
The Metropolitan Complex
Diane Samuels
John Smith
Elisabeth Subrin
Dawn Weleski
Georgina Jackson
12/5/2011
Neighbo(u)rhood
The Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh
Curated by Georgina Jackson
The Mattress Factory Museum of Contemporary Art, Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, is pleased to announce its new exhibition,
Neighbo(u)rhood. The participating artists are Glenn Loughran, Ferhat
Özgür, Seamus Nolan, Sarah Pierce/The Metropolitan Complex, Diane
Samuels, John Smith, Elisabeth Subrin and Dawn Weleski.
In the popular imagination the term neighborhood conjures up ideas of
home, community and even common identity, but is this really so? How
often do such images capture the complexity and conflictual nature of
living together, of sharing space, of negotiating difference and of
creating consensus? This exhibition re-considers neighborhood, the
figure of the neighbor, and the deliberation of how we live together.
Can the figure of the neighbor propose an alternative to the dichotomy
of friend or enemy? Can the classical concept of neighborhood be used
to reconsider social and political formation as complex and
incomplete, universal and particular, representative and invisible?
During the late nineteenth century, Pittsburgh was a central
destination for generations of immigrants who made a living working in
the steel mills, iron, glass, and other factories along the three
famous rivers. The city, once referred to as 'The City of Immigrants,'
offered the promise of economic prosperity in the land of the free and
the land of opportunity. While this massive influx has not been
repeated during the late twentieth or twenty-first centuries,
neighborhoods such as Squirrel Hill and Polish Hill acknowledge the
historical formations of communities to a site, city or nation
according to ethnic, cultural and religious affinities.
Today in Pittsburgh, it is common for people to define their home not
by city limits but by neighborhood boundaries. Thus the idea of
neighborhood informs a sense of belonging, but an identity beyond that
of the cultural, ethnic, religious or social. In this sense
neighborhood operates as a space in which there is a juxtaposition of
difference but also a potential for alternative forms of community not
based on identity but on the common.
Neighbo(u)rhood will be presented both at the Mattress Factory Museum
of Contemporary Art and different sites in Pittsburgh. As part of the
exhibition Glenn Loughran and The Saxifrage School are collaborating
on a temporary public pedagogical intervention called The General
Will, at 120 Federal Street, Pittsburgh, from May 14 through June 14,
2011. For further information and up-to-date listings see
on.fb.me/GeneralWill
A series of talks and events includes a panel discussion with Dr.
Robert Cavalier, Glenn Loughran, Georgina Jackson and Dawn Weleski
titled 'Community Conversations' on Tuesday, May 17; a screening of
the documentary film The Pipe (2010) and panel discussion on Thursday,
June 9; presentation by City of Asylum and in-residence poets on
Thursday, July 28; studio visit and tour of Sampsonia Way with Diane
Samuels on Saturday, August 6; and Dawn Weleski's City Council
Wrestling at 'When Worlds Collide' on Friday, August 12, at the
Lawrenceville Moose Lodge.
The exhibition is curated by Georgina Jackson and is the third
project in a series curated by Mark Garry and Georgina Jackson as part
of the Mattress Factory's Curator-In-Residence program made possible
by the generous support of The Fine Foundation. Neighbo(u)rhood is
supported by Culture Ireland and the Pennsylvania Humanities Council.
The Mattress Factory's artistic program is supported by the Allegheny
Regional Asset District, The Heinz Endowments, Roy A. Hunt Foundation,
Richard King Mellon Foundation, and Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.
About the Mattress Factory:
The Mattress Factory is a museum of contemporary art that presents
'art you can get into'—room-sized environments, created by
in-residence artists. Located at 500 Sampsonia Way, on Pittsburgh's
North Side, since 1977, the Mattress Factory has been hailed as the
best facility for installation art in the United States.
For additional information or press images please contact Lindsay
O'Leary, Public Relations and Marketing Manager, +1 412.231.3169 x232
or email lindsay [at] mattress.org
Neighbo(u)rhood is on view May 14–August 21, 2011.
Mattress Factory
500 Sampsonia Way Pittsburgh, PA 15212
Hours: Tuesday–Saturday 10–5pm, Sunday 1–5pm