THE IMMORTALS
Maria Molteni
In the Window
The Immortals combines discarded objects to create a new environment in SPACE’s window that may appear both formal and narrative, existing somewhere between a modern retail display or ancient shrine. Scavenging for objects that have been banished to dumpsters, sidewalks, clearance wracks and damaged goods aisles, Maria Molteni aims to give these objects, thought to be out of sight and mind, recurring lives. This work calls attention to both the subtle, ephemeral aesthetic qualities of industrial materials as well as their common capacity to live forever.
‘The work of Maria Molteni is made possible through simultaneous devotions: from beekeeping to the Shakers, basketball to punk she cultivates her own complex approach to research and practice through an intuitive sense of spatial and psychic purpose. Self-described as a “neo(n)catholic‚” there is an almost religious aspect to her methodology, a part-formalist, part-social interventionist approach that is channeled through a humble resourcefulness and keen awareness of the current conditions that request for a dialogue to occur at all. From her giant iridescent inflatables to her crocheted basketball nets hung on abandoned hoops, her multi-faceted projects result in objects that are never static and instead serve as catalysts for new models of engagement.’ — Shalini Patel
Maria Molteni is a Nashville-to-Boston-based multimedia and performing artist often working with participatory soft sculpture. Having completed a BFA from Boston University in Painting and Printmaking, her practice sprung from roots in formalism, but has grown to incorporate ritualistic research, social engagement, and community building. With interests spanning Apiculture to Shaker communes, Basketball to Cryptozoology, she might appear an evangelist of New Craft or activist’s personal trainer. Moving against the grain of a city built upon degrees she pursues diverse bodies of knowledge through direct experience and applies such findings to trans-disciplinary educational experiments and workshops. Molteni has completed residencies at Mildred’s Lane (Beach Lake, PA), PS1 MoMA Studios (LIC, NY), the Berwick Research Institute’s Bumpkin Island Art Encampment (Boston Harbor, MA), and sübSamsøn (Boston, MA). She has also performed, exhibited and hosted workshops at the ICA Boston, Université Laval (Québec City), Otis College of Art and Design (LA, CA), the Mattress Factory (Pittsburgh, PA) and the Office of Culture and Design (Manila, Philippines). In 2010 She launched the internationally-acclaimed collective New Craft Artists in Action who craft hand-made basketball nets for empty public hoops. She has worked with beekeepers from across the country, including Treatment Free Apiculturalists Golden Rule and co-founded the project Festooning the Inflatable Beehive.