WEBVTT 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [Mary Mattingly -- Artist] 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 ["Triple Island" -- 2013] 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 ["Mary Mattinglyâs Waterfront Development"] 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [Four Months Earlier] 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [June] 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [Pier 42 -- Lower East Side] 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is making 10 feet, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and then, because the barrel has the curve at the edge, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that should allow for the one-and-a-half inch diameter 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of the two-by-fours. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "Triple Island" is on Pier 42. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It's right on the water, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 on the East River. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It's kind of a place between nature and the city 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that was flooded during Hurricane Sandy. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "Triple Island" is a three-part piece. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 There are three islands that are about sixteen feet in diameter, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and they have 55-gallon drums underneath them 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that are secured, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so, if need be, these structures could float. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I think that the future that we're heading towards is... 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it looks very grim to me-- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 more environmentally extreme, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 more politically extreme, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and more economically stratified. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "Triple Island"--it is a kind of proposal for 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 a different way of working and living. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It's thinking about, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "What do I really need?" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and, "What is my life like without some of the things that I want?" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We're building up these three structures. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This will be a living... 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is a greenhouse. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is kind of an extension of gardens, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and an area that we'll cook in, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and stuff like that. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So, you guys are going to be the first... 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I heard that you're going to be living in here too, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 which is amazing. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We've been allowed to build here for a month, so far. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So this is almost a month. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The work that I've been doing for a while now 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 is kind of inventing this entire world 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that had to do with this future that was really perverse 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and also the only alternative. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The work started with smaller wearable structures, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 like cocoons that could cover you at night, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and you could use as clothing during the day. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 They also could house water and some power. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That dystopic future--it was very sad to me. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And, breaking out of that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 was necessary at some point. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I really started to just think about 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 my own life and how-- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 outside of this future that I was inventing-- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we all had to live. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That translated into the "Flock House Project" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 where three of these spherical houses 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 moved--or were choreographed--throughout the city. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 When "Flock House" was in different parks in the city, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we could actually inhabit them 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and stay in them overnight. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I wanted to really reflect the necessary migration 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that had to do with environmental, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 economic, and political needs to move. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [September] 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 On the one hand, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I want "Triple Island" to be sculptural. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And, on the other hand, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it really needs people to exist in the space 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to come alive. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It's pushed in a further direction-- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 like closer to my personal goals with life and art-- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 when there's someone here. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 To me, that means communally sharing resources-- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it's food, water, and power-- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and how can that be done in a very minimal way. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [sound of an ambulance siren in the distance] 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [Ivan Gilbert -- Volunteer] 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [GILBERT] This is my solar power plant. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 These are my battery arrays. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I have two arrays of car batteries 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that store all my solar power, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 which I collect from the collectors on top of the greenhouse. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I have a refrigerator here. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 A pot-in-pot refrigerator. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It keeps things relatively fresh. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is also my home. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I've been here since the beginning of August. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 A little over a month. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It's a lot chillier now. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [WOMAN, OFF CAMERA] You're planning on staying for how long? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [GILBERT] Through the end of the project, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 which is more November-ish... 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 December-ish. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But I think it's really important to... 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Like, people were like, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "Oh, it's going to get so cold." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But, you know, it's going to be really important 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to experience that part of the project. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [November] 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Because Mary is really apocalyptic, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and imagines a world in which 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you don't have a supply chain 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in which you can get your needs... 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and so she's inventing things in which 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you can still live in, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 like an urban habitat. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I am interested in gaining 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 a few more degrees of relative freedom 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 from giant, like, inhuman institutions. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [MATTINGLY] Obviously, we're at a very unbalanced time right now 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 as far as who has power 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and who has control-- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and who doesn't. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And who doesn't have access 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and who does. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But then, the thing that I am optimistic about 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 is how people, I think, can work together 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in a more grassroots and undercurrent way, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and really make something that's a different world. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I'd like to get to a future 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 where we're actually living in this way, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in real space and time. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And the sculpture is just more of a symbol 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 for this idea.