Goatmother Industrial
Goatmother Industrial is an art producing entity, currently based in Providence, Rhode Island. Established in 2003, it serves as an identifying moniker for numerous art and sound related activities by artist Mark Rice. Originally based in Bloomington, Indiana, Rice took the title with him to the East Coast in 2009, where he has since been living, working, and continuing his education at the Rhode Island School of Design.
Aside from his visual and conceptual art pursuits, Rice is noted as a talented drummer, who has performed and recorded with a host of MusicAL groups including: Magnolia Electric Company, the Impossible Shapes, the Coke Dares, and Early Day Miners, among others. In 2009, his one-man-band, Thit, a more personal musical endeavor, began showing signs of activity, and thus became a unifying “brand” for subsequent audio works, sound experiments, and handmade audio devices.
Rice’s work, and the Goatmother Industrial tag are both deeply tied to Bloomington, Indiana, and the city’s Art Hospital non-profit art space.
The Art Hospital, of which he was a co-founder, was an artist-run non-profit art and music space that featured on-site studios. The revolving cast of Hospital artists had biannual staff exhibitions in both Bloomington and Indianapolis, even swapping shows with the members of Big Car Gallery in Indianapolis in 2008.
Outside of Indiana, Goatmother Industrial has been in exhibition at Durham, North Carolina’s Fort Grunt space, The Martin Art Gallery in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and most recently at Providence, Rhode Island’s Pearl Street space and the Gelman Gallery at RISD .
About the artwork
Artwork produced by Goatmother Industrial is actualized through the use of many different mediums, including: printmaking, sculptural works, art objects/products, audio, video, and fashion/apparel.
Many works involve the use of the "Rungish" language, a visually and verbally syllabic adaptation of the English language created by Goatmother Industrial.
From a material standpoint, the artist tends to incorporate recycled items from many sources, such as construction and architectural salvage, and holds steady to ideas on sustainability and reuse.
With the pretense of being a corporate entity, Goatmother Industrial sometimes incorporates alterations of existing products and product ideas, as well as installation-oriented works. Examples of such includes:
- The BBBPPP (Big Bad Bag of Prints, Proofs, and Paintings) – A collection of experiments in all the mentioned mediums from throughout the history Goatmother Industrial, packaged in a non-polypropylene bag.
- The “Honor System Store”- A kiosk where patrons can purchase small pieces for a price left at their own discretion.
- Fantom Jukebox- An installation that lays the mythological framework for Fantum Limb Fanamatronix with the story of the future/history of Banta, Indiana, through a series of five songs and five lit and animated engravings.
Subsidiaries
Not all projects by the artist are attributed to the Goatmother Industrial title. To extend the corporate facade, work is also accredited to his proper name, as well as several “subsidiary” monikers, referred to by the official Goatmother Industrial press release as "The Umbrella of Shame"). These include:
- Knifekiss Productions
- Thit Sounds
- Commanding Father Foods
- Dogs in Paris
- Fantum Limb Fanamatronix
- Flowerpenis Apparel
- The Honor System Store
- Voyage Corps Gifts
- Alottaknotts Apparel Company
- Lil’ Learner’s Books
- Fort Polio
Exhibitions
- Break It Down, 2011, Gelman Gallery, RISD Museum, Providence, RI.
- Inflate/Deflate, 2010, Pearl Street, Providence, RI.
- Carnival, 2010, Gelman Gallery, RISD Museum, Providence, RI.
- This is a Show about Rock and Roll, 2009, Gelman Gallery, RISD Museum, Providence, RI.
- The 5th Layer of the AT Most Fear, 2009, Art Hospital, Bloomington, IN.
- Bloomington Archives and Museum, 2009, Art Hospital, Bloomington, IN.
- 5$ Painting Show, 2009, Art Hospital, Bloomington, IN.
- A Place for Everything, 2009, Everything in its Place, Fuller Projects, Bloomington, IN.
- No Danger, 2009, School of Fine Arts Gallery, Bloomington, IN.
- Safety Architecture, 2008, Martin Art Gallery, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA.
- No Danger, 2008, Robert L. Ringel Gallery, Lafayette, IN.
- Art Hospital Transport Exhibit, 2008, Big Car Gallery, Indianapolis, IN.
- No Danger, 2008, Richmond Airport, Richmond, VA.
- Cookout II, 2008, Rogers House, Bloomington, IN.
- Art Hospital Staff Exhibition 4, 2008, Art Hospital, Bloomington, IN.
- Birds and Words, 2008, Luna Music, Indianapolis, IN.
- Fresh Walls, 2008, Prima Gallery, Bloomington, IN.
- Skull with a Moth Body, 2008, Runcible Spoon, Bloomington, IN.
- Yung Mail Tails: Reading Room Annex, 2008, Fuller Projects in the McCalla Building, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.
- Courtesy Call, 2008, Courtyard Marriott Room 500, Bloomington, IN.
- Infinite Folio, 2007, Fort Grunt Aquarium, Durham, NC.
- Art Hospital Staff Exhibition 3, 2007, Art Hospital, Bloomington, IN.
- Cookout, 2007, Rogers House, Bloomington, IN.
- Art Hospital Staff Exhibition 2, 2007, Art Hospital, Bloomington, IN.
- Blue Skies in the Basement, 2007, Michaels’ Uptown Café, Bloomington, IN.
- Yung Mail Tails: Window Installation, 2006, Fort Grunt Aquarium, Durham, NC.
- Art Hospital Staff Exhibition 1, 2006, Art Hospital, Bloomington, IN.
- City of Bloomington Postcard Series, 2006, Showers Building, Bloomington, IN.
- Society of Arts and Letters, 2005, Flashlight Gallery, John Waldron Art Center, Bloomington, IN.
- University of Iowa National Postcard Exchange, 2004, Iowa City, IA.
- Black and White Development, 2003, BFA Thesis Group Show, School of Fine Arts Gallery, Indiana University.
- The Life of Leslie Harper, 2003, Space 101, Bloomington, IN.
- Know Evil, 2003, Space 101, Bloomington, IN.
References
- Art Hospital on Visit Bloomington
- http://www.indy.com/posts/bloomington-s-art-hospital-collective-at-big-car-gallery
- http://yourarthere.org/about/index.php
- http://indianapublicmedia.org/arts/checking-art-hospital/
- http://www.bloomingtonalternative.com/node/10467
- http://eventful.com/bloomington/events/fresh-walls-/E0-001-011203666-0
- http://www.magnoliaelectricco.com/archives/44
- http://web.mac.com/risdsculpture/risdsculpture/events.html