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Marvin Touré
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the blood is the water.
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Catalina Schliebener Muñoz
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Deep, Deep Woods
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Isla Hansen
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How to Get to Make Believe
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Andrea Peña
,
States of Transmutation
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Asim Waqif
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Assume the Risk
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Shohei Katayama
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As Below, So Above
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The Mattress Factory is an artist-centered museum, international residency program and renowned producer and presenter of installation art. We say “yes” to artists, offering time and space to dream and realize projects in our hometown, Pittsburgh, PA. We invite audiences from around the world and around the corner to step inside, immerse and connect with the artistic process.

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Vanessa German

sometimes. we. cannot. be. with. our. bodies.

2017

This play is a reflection on the (im)possibility of accepting diversity and the other. The fragmented body of the neoplasm—the fruit of unstable conditions—overcomes barriers, loves and denies itself and others, wanders around, forgetting its profession. It frequently and with pleasure divides, goes through dangerous palpation, questions the possibility of contact with the experience of the other. Poorly brought up but very successful, it invites us to a trans-species transition.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Fusce at elit quis felis ullamcorper vehicula non in est. Maecenas finibus pharetra justo et faucibus. Nulla eu tortor vel ex volutpat efficitur. Vivamus placerat turpis in aliquet venenatis. Quisque ac lacinia mauris. Nam quis lobortis elit. Vestibulum sagittis nisi sit amet euismod hendrerit. Mauris non sodales odio. Donec efficitur molestie quam, sed lobortis massa vestibulum ut.

Nunc at arcu sodales nisi porta euismod non vel neque. Phasellus at lobortis ante, in suscipit justo. Proin non purus vitae nisi molestie consectetur. Vestibulum volutpat lobortis interdum. Vestibulum pretium ligula lorem, egestas ultricies lectus ultricies ac. Curabitur venenatis vulputate dolor.

Artist Statement

this work is a dimensional living reckoning. the living reckoning is bold,erruptive,disruptive work against systems & pathologies that oppress & subvert overt & covert violence onto & into the lives & humanity of marginalized people on this land. to say that, sometimes we cannot be with our bodies, is deep acknowledgement of an ongoing reckoning between past,present,future & striations of the political, cultural & spiritual impact of systemic racism & its attendant brutalities on the physical & spiritual bodies of Black, Brown & Native peoples on this land.
the living reckoning houses a set of, ‘secret survival’ skills that act as a kind of ‘living life vest’
against the drowning & submersion of body, intellect, & spirit to the incremental rape of one’s humanity in a system of white supremacy, xenophobia, anti-blackness, patriarchy, transphobia, homophobia & generalized hate of otherness.
the living reckoning insists on centering the Technology of the Soul, as a radical instrument of justice. The Technology of the Soul resides within the momentum of truth that the past is not dead, it is not even past, It exerts constant pressure on the present & can be mined for strategic ingredients to be used for intentional & creative future making. All of this is Love.
the living reckoning is a ferocious Loving in the face of the unbearable undoing of personhood. The living reckoning insists & works to a zero-place where the truth that All Human beings are created equal with dignity & rights stands.

‘‘I am thinking about Trayvon, Korryn Gaines, Eric Garner, Philandro Castille... I am thinking about Chyna Doll Dupree, Tearia Whitehead...I am thinking about the City of Bones... & all of the nameless disappeared peoples whose blood built the pillars of this democracy...I am thinking about Sandra Bland.... & what the media does in the wake of these murders...I am thinking about how sometimes, when the police are at my car, or another ________ woman at a city park threatens to call them on me, I can do this thing where I send ALL of my emotions to my feet. I run them as quickly as I can out the window of my face & I hide them somewhere in a bomb shelter in my soul-- to survive. To survive the hate, meanness, the incremental rape of my own humanity, I must sometimes leave my body to a secret set of senses that will permit my mouth to open to answer questions, but will not permit me to use my teeth to chew the shit out of some mthrfckrs face when they come at me with word-violence & attempts at soul diminishing leaps of bllshit. sometimes. I cannot be with the rage of my own body. because it cd leave me.without my own body."

Exhibition

New Installations: 40th Year, October 6, 2017 - July 29, 2018
About The Artist

Vanessa German is a poet, actress, photographer, sculptor, designer and educator who creates arresting visual and performance pieces for audiences in the U.S. and around the world.

More from this Artist

Random Black Girl

Fantastic

More from this Exhibition

A Selection from the Greer Lankton Archive of the Mattress Factory, 1975 – 1996

furniture music

Vexations

Solar Grow Room

Sculpting Gravity

Summer Quintet #17

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