the mattress room
Think back to a time when you jumped on the bed as a child. Remember the joy of jumping high and the weightlessness you felt? Now imagine a whole room lined with mattresses, accompanied by full permission to bounce to your heart’s content.
Tweet ShareFor our milestone birthday year in 2018, we welcomed back No Rules…Except, one of the most talked about installations over the past 10 years. Artist Brian Dick again reinvented Allan Kaprow’s work, and shares with our visitors the childish joy of jumping on the bed.
This immersive, interactive room is filled with 40+ mattresses and over 160 “pillow” tires for children (and grown ups) to play, crawl, jump and bounce around in.
Paying homage to our past
No Rules...Except was first commissioned in 2008 as part of the exhibition childsplay. It interpreted two installations by Allan Kaprow—Yard (1961) and No Rules…Except (2000). This 2018 iteration includes a soundscape by Bram Kaprow.
A visitor favorite
Ten years later, No Rules....Except is asked for frequently by Museum visitors who remember the visceral, playful experience of being in that artwork. The 2018 reinvention allows Dick and the Museum to expand this all-time favorite artwork.
This type of installation, which allows children to play creatively, is at the heart of the museum and represents a shift in its mission since 2008.
— Pacific Magazine
Who Made This?
- Allan Kaprow, reinvented by Brian Dick
- born
- 1963, Las Cruces, NM
Brian Dick is a multimedia artist best known for playful artworks that bring contemporary art practice to unexpected environments. The wit and humor of his works—for example, creating unsolicited museum “mascots” from objects found in the surrounding community (The Nationwide Museum Mascot Project, 2009-present)– disarms the viewer/participant and makes ways for exploration of deeper concepts of the self. As Dick has said, “art should be like a good joke. It surprises you with different ideas or combinations that you might never have thought of before, but makes sense in a weird way. Like peanut butter and bananas.”
Greatly influenced by the work, philosophy, and friendship of Allan Kaprow, Dick has displayed and performed in solo and group exhibitions at many museums and galleries over the past 25 years, both internationally (The Centre Georges Pompidou, The Musée d’art moderne) as well as in numerous United States galleries, including Luis De Jesus, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Quint Contemporary Art and many others. Dick earned his BFA from UCLA and his MFA from UCSD, and is currently an artist in residence at the University of Pennsylvania.
This installation is made possible by:
