Monterey Annex 2023
The Mattress Factory opens three new distinct exhibitions in the Museum’s Monterey Annex from artists Lenka Clayton & Phillip Andrew Lewis, Lydia Rosenberg, and Katie Bullock.
"The Museum Collects Itself"
Collaborative duo Lenka Clayton and Phillip Andrew Lewis generate discarded materials of all institutional activities of the Mattress Factory to be redirected – stored, catalogued and displayed within the Monterey Annex – instead of being thrown away.
The Museum Collects Itself (2023) by Lenka Clayton & Phillip Andrew LewisMattress Factory
After dunes of 10 months worth of garbage and rubbish pile up with involvement from the entire staff of the museum, manifesting in a behind the scenes “self-portrait” of the museum’s functionality, the gallery ends as it started: empty.
"Do this while I wait"
Lydia Rosenberg presents a series of sculptures described in her ongoing novel-as-sculpture about an artist who spends time making objects and listening to guided meditations, creating a narrative in which domestic cleaning objects are key to decluttering her mental landscape.
Do this while I wait (2023) by Lydia RosenbergMattress Factory
These objects are hybrids: shredded books or cast crow’s feet become broom bristles, a lamp becomes formless, a pillowcase becomes a bucket, and ceramic spaghetti turns into a mop. These transmutations get at the heart of how we tend to care for objects rather than ourselves.
"As Seen From the Surface"
Katie Bullock brings her ongoing archive to life – projecting small videos interspersed with diagrammatic drawings brought from books and her videos/photographs all in a geometric pattern. These offer the opportunity to tell her stories and merge the personal with the universal.
As Seen From the Surface (2023) by Katie BullockMattress Factory
Together the elements form a new cabinet of curiosities for the infinitesimal. There is symmetry in seeing the videos and drawings together as they tell a story of experience followed by the sometimes fruitless need to understand what just occurred.
