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