1 00:00:13,517 --> 00:00:16,646 [Mary Mattingly -- Artist] 2 00:00:18,635 --> 00:00:22,806 ["Triple Island" -- 2013] 3 00:00:32,171 --> 00:00:37,555 ["Mary Mattingly's Waterfront Development"] 4 00:00:46,615 --> 00:00:49,556 [Four Months Earlier] 5 00:00:49,556 --> 00:00:51,718 [June] 6 00:00:56,352 --> 00:00:59,551 [Pier 42 -- Lower East Side] 7 00:01:00,108 --> 00:01:01,286 This is making 10 feet, 8 00:01:01,286 --> 00:01:04,222 and then, because the barrel has the curve at the edge, 9 00:01:04,222 --> 00:01:07,990 that should allow for the one-and-a-half inch diameter 10 00:01:07,990 --> 00:01:09,653 of the two-by-fours. 11 00:01:13,025 --> 00:01:15,421 "Triple Island" is on Pier 42. 12 00:01:15,421 --> 00:01:16,655 It's right on the water, 13 00:01:16,655 --> 00:01:17,886 on the East River. 14 00:01:18,223 --> 00:01:21,990 It's kind of a place between nature and the city 15 00:01:21,990 --> 00:01:24,422 that was flooded during Hurricane Sandy. 16 00:01:26,716 --> 00:01:30,085 "Triple Island" is a three-part piece. 17 00:01:30,325 --> 00:01:33,392 There are three islands that are about sixteen feet in diameter, 18 00:01:33,392 --> 00:01:36,715 and they have 55-gallon drums underneath them 19 00:01:36,715 --> 00:01:37,822 that are secured, 20 00:01:37,822 --> 00:01:40,886 so, if need be, these structures could float. 21 00:01:48,285 --> 00:01:51,560 I think that the future that we're heading towards is... 22 00:01:51,560 --> 00:01:53,160 it looks very grim to me-- 23 00:01:53,160 --> 00:01:54,453 more environmentally extreme, 24 00:01:54,453 --> 00:01:55,792 more politically extreme, 25 00:01:55,792 --> 00:01:58,116 and more economically stratified. 26 00:02:00,591 --> 00:02:03,114 "Triple Island"--it is a kind of proposal for 27 00:02:03,114 --> 00:02:06,559 a different way of working and living. 28 00:02:06,751 --> 00:02:07,832 It's thinking about, 29 00:02:07,832 --> 00:02:09,485 "What do I really need?" 30 00:02:09,485 --> 00:02:13,591 and, "What is my life like without some of the things that I want?" 31 00:02:15,216 --> 00:02:18,117 We're building up these three structures. 32 00:02:18,117 --> 00:02:19,087 This will be a living... 33 00:02:19,087 --> 00:02:20,160 This is a greenhouse. 34 00:02:20,160 --> 00:02:22,422 This is kind of an extension of gardens, 35 00:02:22,422 --> 00:02:24,547 and an area that we'll cook in, 36 00:02:24,547 --> 00:02:25,354 and stuff like that. 37 00:02:25,354 --> 00:02:28,114 So, you guys are going to be the first... 38 00:02:28,114 --> 00:02:30,393 I heard that you're going to be living in here too, 39 00:02:30,393 --> 00:02:31,747 which is amazing. 40 00:02:32,522 --> 00:02:35,109 We've been allowed to build here for a month, so far. 41 00:02:35,109 --> 00:02:36,811 So this is almost a month. 42 00:02:46,031 --> 00:02:48,454 The work that I've been doing for a while now 43 00:02:48,454 --> 00:02:50,360 is kind of inventing this entire world 44 00:02:50,360 --> 00:02:53,318 that had to do with this future that was really perverse 45 00:02:53,318 --> 00:02:55,991 and also the only alternative. 46 00:02:56,961 --> 00:02:59,622 The work started with smaller wearable structures, 47 00:02:59,622 --> 00:03:02,453 like cocoons that could cover you at night, 48 00:03:02,453 --> 00:03:05,486 and you could use as clothing during the day. 49 00:03:05,486 --> 00:03:09,518 They also could house water and some power. 50 00:03:12,959 --> 00:03:16,499 That dystopic future--it was very sad to me. 51 00:03:16,499 --> 00:03:18,392 And, breaking out of that 52 00:03:19,902 --> 00:03:22,054 was necessary at some point. 53 00:03:22,548 --> 00:03:24,314 I really started to just think about 54 00:03:24,314 --> 00:03:26,360 my own life and how-- 55 00:03:26,360 --> 00:03:30,749 outside of this future that I was inventing-- 56 00:03:30,749 --> 00:03:32,223 we all had to live. 57 00:03:36,275 --> 00:03:40,718 That translated into the "Flock House Project" 58 00:03:40,718 --> 00:03:45,421 where three of these spherical houses 59 00:03:46,101 --> 00:03:49,053 moved--or were choreographed--throughout the city. 60 00:03:49,343 --> 00:03:52,655 When "Flock House" was in different parks in the city, 61 00:03:52,655 --> 00:03:54,716 we could actually inhabit them 62 00:03:54,716 --> 00:03:57,161 and we could stay in them overnight. 63 00:03:58,654 --> 00:04:01,488 I wanted to really reflect the necessary migration 64 00:04:01,488 --> 00:04:03,622 that had to do with environmental, 65 00:04:03,622 --> 00:04:06,884 economic, and political needs to move. 66 00:04:10,500 --> 00:04:15,849 [September] 67 00:04:19,294 --> 00:04:20,687 On the one hand, 68 00:04:20,687 --> 00:04:23,422 I want "Triple Island" to be sculptural. 69 00:04:23,422 --> 00:04:24,884 And, on the other hand, 70 00:04:24,884 --> 00:04:27,422 it really needs people to exist in the space 71 00:04:27,422 --> 00:04:29,023 to come alive. 72 00:04:29,360 --> 00:04:32,291 It's pushed in a further direction-- 73 00:04:32,291 --> 00:04:38,655 like closer to my personal goals with life and art-- 74 00:04:38,961 --> 00:04:40,623 when there's someone here. 75 00:04:43,622 --> 00:04:46,959 To me, that means communally sharing resources-- 76 00:04:46,959 --> 00:04:50,054 it's food, water, and power-- 77 00:04:50,054 --> 00:04:53,653 and how can that be done in a very minimal way. 78 00:05:01,855 --> 00:05:04,591 [sound of an ambulance siren in the distance] 79 00:05:15,493 --> 00:05:18,919 [Ivan Gilbert -- Volunteer] 80 00:05:25,237 --> 00:05:27,191 [GILBERT] This is my solar power plant. 81 00:05:27,191 --> 00:05:29,360 These are my battery arrays. 82 00:05:29,360 --> 00:05:31,592 I have two arrays of car batteries 83 00:05:31,592 --> 00:05:33,345 that store all my solar power, 84 00:05:33,345 --> 00:05:35,793 which I collect from the collectors on top of the greenhouse. 85 00:05:36,654 --> 00:05:37,885 I have a refrigerator here. 86 00:05:38,516 --> 00:05:40,315 A pot-in-pot refrigerator. 87 00:05:41,149 --> 00:05:43,361 It keeps things relatively fresh. 88 00:05:44,945 --> 00:05:46,236 This is also my home. 89 00:05:46,723 --> 00:05:49,131 I've been here since the beginning of August. 90 00:05:49,960 --> 00:05:50,992 A little over a month. 91 00:05:51,642 --> 00:05:53,094 It's a lot chillier now. 92 00:05:53,104 --> 00:05:55,021 [WOMAN, OFF CAMERA] You're planning on staying for how long? 93 00:05:55,021 --> 00:05:56,391 [GILBERT] Through the end of the project, 94 00:05:56,391 --> 00:05:58,283 which is more November-ish... 95 00:05:58,283 --> 00:05:59,280 December-ish. 96 00:05:59,619 --> 00:06:01,459 But I think it's really important to... 97 00:06:01,683 --> 00:06:03,453 Like, people were like, 98 00:06:03,559 --> 00:06:04,883 "Oh, it's going to get so cold." 99 00:06:04,883 --> 00:06:07,759 But, you know, it's going to be really important 100 00:06:07,759 --> 00:06:09,972 to experience that part of the project. 101 00:06:10,816 --> 00:06:13,413 [November] 102 00:06:20,676 --> 00:06:22,560 Because Mary is really apocalyptic, 103 00:06:22,560 --> 00:06:24,484 and imagines a world in which 104 00:06:24,484 --> 00:06:26,391 you don't have a supply chain 105 00:06:26,391 --> 00:06:27,990 in which you can get your needs... 106 00:06:27,990 --> 00:06:29,946 and so she's inventing things in which 107 00:06:29,946 --> 00:06:30,990 you can still live in, 108 00:06:30,990 --> 00:06:32,441 like an urban habitat. 109 00:06:32,863 --> 00:06:34,191 I am interested in gaining 110 00:06:34,191 --> 00:06:36,750 a few more degrees of relative freedom 111 00:06:37,359 --> 00:06:40,485 from giant, like, inhuman institutions. 112 00:06:55,791 --> 00:06:58,559 [MATTINGLY] Obviously, we're at a very unbalanced time right now 113 00:06:58,760 --> 00:07:00,116 as far as who has power 114 00:07:00,116 --> 00:07:01,347 and who has control-- 115 00:07:01,347 --> 00:07:03,114 and who doesn't. 116 00:07:03,114 --> 00:07:04,370 And who doesn't have access 117 00:07:04,370 --> 00:07:05,417 and who does. 118 00:07:07,078 --> 00:07:10,145 But then, the thing that I am optimistic about 119 00:07:10,145 --> 00:07:13,289 is how people, I think, can work together 120 00:07:13,289 --> 00:07:16,453 in a more grassroots and undercurrent way, 121 00:07:16,453 --> 00:07:20,685 and really make something that's a different world. 122 00:07:23,575 --> 00:07:25,685 I'd like to get to a future 123 00:07:25,685 --> 00:07:28,192 where we're actually living in this way, 124 00:07:28,192 --> 00:07:30,914 in real space and time. 125 00:07:32,851 --> 00:07:35,221 And the sculpture is just more of a symbol 126 00:07:35,221 --> 00:07:36,921 for this idea.