Matter of Life & Death (Bolero)

Barbara Neri began collecting and flattening cereal boxes around 1992. At the time such paper packaging could not be re-cycled and this troubled her. She eventually began reconstructing the flattened boxes with a glue gun. There were so many they took over her studio and the idea of hanging a net and tossing them inside came to her. The net was 14 feet square and bulging with hundreds of boxes and by then other food containers. One day she let them out of the net and a process laced with research and serendipity ensued that eventually resulted in Matter of Life & Death (Bolero).

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The QT video excerpt is from an Installation and Performance of Matter of Life & Death (Bolero) that took place on 7 October 1995 at Detroit’s former Michigan Gallery. A DVD documenting this performance was produced in 2007.

Neri described the motivations, research and creative process that produced Matter of Life & Death (Bolero) in an illustrated and end-noted article published and on the cover of the August 2006 ezine issue of Stimulus_respond.

Click here to download a copy.

The B & W photos seen here were taken by Julia Millis of a performance of this work at the Lyric Stage, Boston MA.

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Click here to see pictures from a recent installation of "Matter of Life & Death (Bolero)" and read the artist statement Neri wrote to learn how this earlier work connects to her current work.