Hours
Currently Closed
Admission
Members
FREE
Adults
$22
Seniors
$20
Students
$17
Marvin Touré
,
the blood is the water.
View Exhibition
Catalina Schliebener Muñoz
,
Deep, Deep Woods
View Exhibition
Isla Hansen
,
How to Get to Make Believe
View Exhibition
Andrea Peña
,
States of Transmutation
View Exhibition
Asim Waqif
,
Assume the Risk
View Exhibition
Shohei Katayama
,
As Below, So Above
View Exhibition
Doreen Chan
,
HalfDream: Another Room
View Exhibition

After School

Teen Summer Workshop Series
Our Mission

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.

Learn More About Us

Valerie Brodar

X knows P

1990

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.

Brodar constructed a triangular space and painted all the surfaces, including the ceiling and floor, white.

Hand-written messages cover the wall, floor, and ceiling - even the light bulbs. A partial transcription reads: "female perception male perception sound perception voice perception homosexual perception heterosexual perception sex perception violence perception racism perception sexism perception human perception responsibility perception pornographic perception."

From behind the walls, ten televisions, all tuned to different stations, fill the air with different noises and a jumble of messages. The words and sounds are continuous but indiscernible.

Artist Statement

It is important that my work be accessible to a wide audience. There is at least one level that can be easily discerned, opening a door to an understanding. I want the viewer to slow down and become involved in an internal dialogue with the work, to become isolated from the presence of others and immersed in his or her own memories and thoughts. I wish to create an environment in which the viewer will have a physiological response, not only a cerebral one. The viewer completes the work in an ever-changing interaction, reaction, and experience. Sharing a multifaceted reality, an internal conversation hidden from the external, a dialogue of memories lost and found.

Exhibition

Valerie Brodar: October 20, 1990 - January 20, 1991
About The Artist

Valerie Brodar received her BFA in Printmaking & Fiber Arts from Carnegie Mellon University and her MFA in Time Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been shown at the Instituto Cultural Peruano Norteamericano, Miraflores, Peru; Zico House, Beirut, Lebanon; SOHO20 Chelsea, New York, NY; Center of Contemporary Art, Seattle, WA; Artemisia Gallery, Chicago, IL; Betty Rymer Gallery, Chicago, IL; Gallery 2, Chicago, IL; and The Erie Museum, Erie, PA. She is currently an Associate Professor of Media Arts at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.

More from this Artist

More from this Exhibition

SUPPORT THE MUSEUM

Give artists the time, space and resources to create remarkable works of art that help us see our world in new ways.

linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram