September 26, 2000

Antoni Works Day and Night in Performance at MASS MoCA

(September 25, 2000 -- North Adams, MA) ) ö Artist Janine Antoni will perform Slumber for approximately eight days and nights beginning September 28 at MASS MoCA. In this piece Antoni will sleep in the Ruth F. Devereux Gallery as part of the performance. The set for this piece, consisting of a bed and blanket, EEG machine and loom, are already installed at MASS MoCA as a part of its current exhibit Unnatural Science.

As Antoni sleeps, the electroencephalograph (EEG) machine records her rapid eye movements (REM) which correspond to her periods of dreaming in the sleep cycle. Pat Sprague, an LPN and EEG technician with the North Adams Regional Hospital will assist Antoni in setting up the EEG machine.

By day Antoni will use the REM graph to weave the pattern into the blanket she sleeps under using strips torn from her nightgown. Antoni has performed this piece at six other installations, each time wearing a nightgown meaningful to the venue. At MASS MoCA she will wear a nightgown made from textiles printed at the mill when it housed Arnold Print Works from the 1860s to the 1940s. Museum visitors are allowed access to the gallery during the day when Antoni is weaving, but the museum is closed to the public at night while Antoni is doing her dream work.

Janine Antoni's work often explores traditionally feminine roles and celebrates the physical act of creating art. Her participation in Slumber is typical of her work, which is always labor-intensive and often involves her body. In Loving Care, a much discussed work from 1992, using her hair as a mop, Antoni dipped her hair in dye and mopped the floor with it combining mopping, traditionally women's work, with painting. In Gnaw she mounted a feminist response to the masculine Minimalist movement. The classic Minimalist steel cube was recast in twin blocks of chocolate and lard. Antoni chewed each block. The piece included heart-shaped chocolate boxes and lipstick Antoni manufactured from the chewed material as references to societal pressures on women and their bodies. A native of Freeport, Bahamas, Janine Antoni now lives and works in New York City.

MASS MoCA, the largest center for contemporary visual and performing arts in the United States, is located at 87 Marshall Street in North Adams on a 13-acre campus of renovated 19th-century factory buildings. MASS MoCA focuses on the work of visual and performing artists charting new territory.

For Immediate Release
Contact: Katherine Myers
(413) 664-4481 x8113
katherine@massmoca.org