Maria Molteni
mariazitamolteni@gmail.com/ (615) 566-2937/ Albers Residency Application ‘23
Note- I decided to submit my portfolio via web link because I thought it would be an easier way to view the videos. The videos are a key piece of the works’ activation. Many of these videos are “hidden” on vimeo but allowed to be linked elsewhere. Please let me know if you have difficulty accessing them. Some were stubborn to load for reasons I can’t understand beyond routine Mercury Retrograde tech glitches!
1. Bough House/ Bauhaus, 2020
Medium: Participatory installation, risograph printed stereographs, pen and ink portraits, found objects, acrylic on the wall, milk paint made from scratch
Dimensions 30ft x 12ft x 20ft
This installation is inspired by a vintage stereograph of Lily Dale’s (historic Spiritualist site) “House of Boughs” as well as the Bauhaus’ “Haus am Horn” drafted by Benita Koch Otte. Each is the first building erected for its respective visionary community
2. Unseen Hours: Space Clearing for Spirit Work/ Sacred Sheets, film still, 2021
Medium: Original Shaker artifacts, hand-made milk paint, cut paper assemblage, hand crafted brooms
Site: Former Harvard Shakers Office, Fruitlands Museum
Dimensions: Variable
The Sacred Sheets were drawings crafted in 1843 by Shaker “instruments” Mary Wicks and Semantha Fairbanks during a period of vibrant Shaker channeled called “The Era of Manifestations”. This set of drawings stood out among many other Gift Drawings, revealed to young instruments by Holy Mother Wisdom, for their abstract script referred to as “spirit writing". For this project, one of the drawings was recreated by arranging milk-painted cut paper on the floor of a historic Shaker building.
See below for a 1 minute trailor for the 17 minute film made by myself in collaboration with Allison Halter and Gabe Elder
3. Sacred Sheets: 1 min trailer of 17 min full video, 2021
Medium: video, movement, installation, performance, hand crafted objects, 15 years Shaker scholarship
Dimensions: full video 17:56 mins
4. Venusian Rosaceae (Five Seeded Star), 2020
Medium: Industrial concrete/ground paint, colors mixed by hand, hand painted with brushes by Molteni
Site: The Momentary, formerly an apple orchard- today a contemporary art museum
Dimensions: 50 ft diameter circle
Inspired by the history of the site as a former apple orchard, Venusian Rosaceae explores the myriad of myths, shapes and symbols associated with apples. The circular composition includes layers of five-pointed stars and infinitely connected braids, referencing the pentagonal shape of an apple’s core and the Dance of Venus- an astrological map of Venus retrogrades as it moves around the Sun with the Earth.
5. Venusian Rosaceae (Five Seeded Star)/ Plaited Ouroboros, 2020
Medium: Industrial concrete/ground paint, colors mixed by hand, hand painted with brushes by Molteni, this is also a video work in its own right, a way to experience the activation of the piece digitally
Dimensions: painting- 50 ft diameter circle, video- 5 mins
6. A Sea Bird, 2021
Medium: Industrial concrete/ground paint, colors mixed by hand, hand painted with brushes by Molteni
Site: Downtown Boston, 2 blocks from the former Our Lady of Good Voyage Chapel
Dimensions: 2,000 sq ft
A Sea Bird is the culmination, in painted form, of ongoing multi-media and performative work dedicated to the late Our Lady of Good Voyage Chapel, built along the Boston Harbor in the 1950’s and demolished in the “Seaport” in 2017. One case see coded phrases “A Sea Bird”, “Wave of Grace” and “Brace, Brace”- an original sea shanty prayer/ poem written with the nautical flag alphabet to honor the “Fall” and “Ascension” of Our Lady, the Sea Bird.
Molteni pioneered the community-centered basketball court painting movement in the US. A Sea Bird is their 7th of 8 hand painted basketball court murals in Massachusetts.
7. BMC x NCAA (Black Mountain College x New Craft Artists in Action Collaboration), 2020
Medium: Hand woven + crocheted basketball nets with hand painted backboards inspired by Anni + Josef Albers & Ruth Asawa
In 2010 Molteni founded the international queer/ feminist artist collective New Craft Artists in Action. Under Molteni’s creative direction, the NCAA has made many bodies of collaborative work as well as site-specific public interventions. Their project Net Works, which encourages the crafting of hand-made basketball nets for empty hoops has become a wide-spread teaching tool. Often Molteni’s hoops and Net Works reference the Albers- particularly the painted series, Homage to the Square, that Josef turned into an open-sourced teaching exercise. Molteni also extends their own studio experiments beyond the gallery and classroom to engage a wide range of participants and players. BMC x NCAA was featured in “To the Hoop”, in Greensboro, North Carolina and plays with the nearby legacy of Black Mountain College - a huge inspiration for Molteni who playfully positions themself as the Phys Ed Coach of BMC ; )
8. Yarn Over Double Dribble: Basketball Handling Score After John Cage: 1 min excerpt of 8 min video, 2020
Medium: hand drawn conceptual score, performance, video
Dimensions: full video 8 mins
Part of the BMC x NCAA series, this performance pairs ball handling techniques with knitting stitches (uch as yarn over, knit two together) found in a basketball net pattern created by collaborator Andrea Sherrill Evans. The pattern is transformed into a conceptual score performed live by Molteni as one reads sheet music. the pattern is also one of many found in the NCAA’s 2014 publication Net Works: Learn to Craft Handmade Nets for Empty Basketball Hoops in Your Neighborhood
See excerpt of 8 min video performance below. Image to the left was performed for a live, roof-top audience.
9. Yarn Over Double Dribble: Basketball Handling Score After John Cage: 1 min excerpt of 8 min video
Year Completed: 2020
Medium: hand drawn conceptual score, performance, video
Dimensions: full video 8 mins
10. Shaker Work-Out! Episodes 1 of 8
Year Completed: 2022
Medium: movement research video series based on 15 years of the artist’s research on Shaker dance/worship
Dimensions: full video 31 mins
The Shakers, known for building spiritual intentional communities across the United States, arrived from Manchester England with their leader Mother Ann Lee in 1776. While Lee is often hailed as “Holy Mother Wisdom” or “Second Coming of Christ in female form”, Shaker brothers and sisters were ordinary people who opted to forego their families and worldly possessions in order to enter into an extraordinary egalitarian community, where all property was held in common. In keeping with a popular Shaker phrase “Hands to work. Hearts to God,” each day was filled with the disciplined physical and spiritual tasks of transforming the earth into Heaven.
Today, Shakers are considered the longest-running American “utopian” experiment. Their early adopted nickname “Shaking Quakers” referred to their organized and free-form styles of dance worship, which they called “Laboring”. Alternatively, prayer was often called “exercise”. Their marching, singing, whirling, and clapping were carefully constructed activities held within their own sacred spaces as a way to shake off sin or express joy and devotion. While known for their celibacy, Shakers remain present in their bodies despite a long lineage of Christian faiths divorcing the body and spirit.
Molteni’s Shaker Work-Out positions stylized, improvisational versions of these dances alongside pop hits, functioning as episodic work-out videos that bring forward forms of joy and ritual the Shakers hold high. These videos were shot during a brief residency at Canterbury Shaker Village. They are inspired by over 15 years of Molteni’s research in Shaker archives/ spaces combined with a love for movement and pop music.