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Marvin Touré
,
the blood is the water.
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Catalina Schliebener Muñoz
,
Deep, Deep Woods
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Isla Hansen
,
How to Get to Make Believe
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Andrea Peña
,
States of Transmutation
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Asim Waqif
,
Assume the Risk
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Shohei Katayama
,
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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Mark Bellaire

Vainglorious Stammering

2011

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.

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Hologram installation is a digital map image transposed on a tomb, created by Susanne Slavick. Heartbeat recording by Hend Samir.

Curated by Tavia La Follette

Artist Statement

The tomb serves as a symbol of power—and preservation of power—with the embalmed subject set to be preserved for eternity in a sarcophagus housed in an elaborate crypt. Massive amounts of resources and toil are directed away from other causes to fortify the image of a single man. The reign of Mubarak had taken a somewhat dynastic shift—he had been in power for three decades and had taken steps to shift power to his son. The Egyptian Revolution brought his reign to a sudden end, effectively erasing his status and any delusions of permanence his position may have afforded. Vainglorious Stammering illustrates a sense of shrinking and recession—the body in the sarcophagus becomes exposed, the unyielding limestone is replaced with flickering lights, and the grandiose architecture is transposed to a neglected bathroom. In betraying the ideals used to consolidate its reign, the heart of the regime stammers unto death whilst still immersed in lavishes that have long undermined more fundamental needs.

Exhibition

Sites of Passage: Egypt & the US, September 9, 2011 - February 12, 2012
About The Artist

Mark Bellaire is an artist who uses a wide assortment of digital and traditional media to explore multi-faceted interests. His artwork is heavily influenced by his scientific background, including his work at the University of Pittsburgh, assisting in deep-brain stimulation and schizophrenia research. Using materials as diverse as oil painting, music composition and computer programming, he works to create illusionary tangibility through the subtle distortion of real conditions. Common themes in his work include the convolution of experience by perception or documentation and the escalation of fatal flaws.

More from this Artist

More from this Exhibition

Grenadine

Mind Area “Sound of The Sound”

VANISHING POINT

TANGIBLE FEELINGS

THE POWER OF NOW

THE CULTIVATION OF SENSE

Alexandria Series

Over My Dead Body

Macaroni Harmony

Nonsense

Swarm

Tahrir 2

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