WEBVTT 00:00:13.517 --> 00:00:16.646 [Mary Mattingly -- Artist] 00:00:18.635 --> 00:00:22.806 ["Triple Island" -- 2013] 00:00:32.171 --> 00:00:37.555 ["Mary Mattingly's Waterfront Development"] 00:00:46.615 --> 00:00:49.556 [Four Months Earlier] 00:00:49.556 --> 00:00:51.718 [June] 00:00:56.352 --> 00:00:59.551 [Pier 42 -- Lower East Side] 00:01:00.108 --> 00:01:01.286 This is making 10 feet, 00:01:01.286 --> 00:01:04.222 and then, because the barrel has the curve at the edge, 00:01:04.222 --> 00:01:07.990 that should allow for the one-and-a-half inch diameter 00:01:07.990 --> 00:01:09.653 of the two-by-fours. 00:01:13.025 --> 00:01:15.421 "Triple Island" is on Pier 42. 00:01:15.421 --> 00:01:16.655 It's right on the water, 00:01:16.655 --> 00:01:17.886 on the East River. 00:01:18.223 --> 00:01:21.990 It's kind of a place between nature and the city 00:01:21.990 --> 00:01:24.422 that was flooded during Hurricane Sandy. 00:01:26.716 --> 00:01:30.085 "Triple Island" is a three-part piece. 00:01:30.325 --> 00:01:33.392 There are three islands that are about sixteen feet in diameter, 00:01:33.392 --> 00:01:36.715 and they have 55-gallon drums underneath them 00:01:36.715 --> 00:01:37.822 that are secured, 00:01:37.822 --> 00:01:40.886 so, if need be, these structures could float. 00:01:48.285 --> 00:01:51.560 I think that the future that we're heading towards is... 00:01:51.560 --> 00:01:53.160 it looks very grim to me-- 00:01:53.160 --> 00:01:54.453 more environmentally extreme, 00:01:54.453 --> 00:01:55.792 more politically extreme, 00:01:55.792 --> 00:01:58.116 and more economically stratified. 00:02:00.591 --> 00:02:03.114 "Triple Island"--it is a kind of proposal for 00:02:03.114 --> 00:02:06.559 a different way of working and living. 00:02:06.751 --> 00:02:07.832 It's thinking about, 00:02:07.832 --> 00:02:09.485 "What do I really need?" 00:02:09.485 --> 00:02:13.591 and, "What is my life like without some of the things that I want?" 00:02:15.216 --> 00:02:18.117 We're building up these three structures. 00:02:18.117 --> 00:02:19.087 This will be a living... 00:02:19.087 --> 00:02:20.160 This is a greenhouse. 00:02:20.160 --> 00:02:22.422 This is kind of an extension of gardens, 00:02:22.422 --> 00:02:24.547 and an area that we'll cook in, 00:02:24.547 --> 00:02:25.354 and stuff like that. 00:02:25.354 --> 00:02:28.114 So, you guys are going to be the first... 00:02:28.114 --> 00:02:30.393 I heard that you're going to be living in here too, 00:02:30.393 --> 00:02:31.747 which is amazing. 00:02:32.522 --> 00:02:35.109 We've been allowed to build here for a month, so far. 00:02:35.109 --> 00:02:36.811 So this is almost a month. 00:02:46.031 --> 00:02:48.454 The work that I've been doing for a while now 00:02:48.454 --> 00:02:50.360 is kind of inventing this entire world 00:02:50.360 --> 00:02:53.318 that had to do with this future that was really perverse 00:02:53.318 --> 00:02:55.991 and also the only alternative. 00:02:56.961 --> 00:02:59.622 The work started with smaller wearable structures, 00:02:59.622 --> 00:03:02.453 like cocoons that could cover you at night, 00:03:02.453 --> 00:03:05.486 and you could use as clothing during the day. 00:03:05.486 --> 00:03:09.518 They also could house water and some power. 00:03:12.959 --> 00:03:16.499 That dystopic future--it was very sad to me. 00:03:16.499 --> 00:03:18.392 And, breaking out of that 00:03:19.902 --> 00:03:22.054 was necessary at some point. 00:03:22.548 --> 00:03:24.314 I really started to just think about 00:03:24.314 --> 00:03:26.360 my own life and how-- 00:03:26.360 --> 00:03:30.749 outside of this future that I was inventing-- 00:03:30.749 --> 00:03:32.223 we all had to live. 00:03:36.275 --> 00:03:40.718 That translated into the "Flock House Project" 00:03:40.718 --> 00:03:45.421 where three of these spherical houses 00:03:46.101 --> 00:03:49.053 moved--or were choreographed--throughout the city. 00:03:49.343 --> 00:03:52.655 When "Flock House" was in different parks in the city, 00:03:52.655 --> 00:03:54.716 we could actually inhabit them 00:03:54.716 --> 00:03:57.161 and we could stay in them overnight. 00:03:58.654 --> 00:04:01.488 I wanted to really reflect the necessary migration 00:04:01.488 --> 00:04:03.622 that had to do with environmental, 00:04:03.622 --> 00:04:06.884 economic, and political needs to move. 00:04:10.500 --> 00:04:15.849 [September] 00:04:19.294 --> 00:04:20.687 On the one hand, 00:04:20.687 --> 00:04:23.422 I want "Triple Island" to be sculptural. 00:04:23.422 --> 00:04:24.884 And, on the other hand, 00:04:24.884 --> 00:04:27.422 it really needs people to exist in the space 00:04:27.422 --> 00:04:29.023 to come alive. 00:04:29.360 --> 00:04:32.291 It's pushed in a further direction-- 00:04:32.291 --> 00:04:38.655 like closer to my personal goals with life and art-- 00:04:38.961 --> 00:04:40.623 when there's someone here. 00:04:43.622 --> 00:04:46.959 To me, that means communally sharing resources-- 00:04:46.959 --> 00:04:50.054 it's food, water, and power-- 00:04:50.054 --> 00:04:53.653 and how can that be done in a very minimal way. 00:05:01.855 --> 00:05:04.591 [sound of an ambulance siren in the distance] 00:05:15.493 --> 00:05:18.919 [Ivan Gilbert -- Volunteer] 00:05:25.237 --> 00:05:27.191 [GILBERT] This is my solar power plant. 00:05:27.191 --> 00:05:29.360 These are my battery arrays. 00:05:29.360 --> 00:05:31.592 I have two arrays of car batteries 00:05:31.592 --> 00:05:33.345 that store all my solar power, 00:05:33.345 --> 00:05:35.793 which I collect from the collectors on top of the greenhouse. 00:05:36.654 --> 00:05:37.885 I have a refrigerator here. 00:05:38.516 --> 00:05:40.315 A pot-in-pot refrigerator. 00:05:41.149 --> 00:05:43.361 It keeps things relatively fresh. 00:05:44.945 --> 00:05:46.236 This is also my home. 00:05:46.723 --> 00:05:49.131 I've been here since the beginning of August. 00:05:49.960 --> 00:05:50.992 A little over a month. 00:05:51.642 --> 00:05:53.094 It's a lot chillier now. 00:05:53.104 --> 00:05:55.021 [WOMAN, OFF CAMERA] You're planning on staying for how long? 00:05:55.021 --> 00:05:56.391 [GILBERT] Through the end of the project, 00:05:56.391 --> 00:05:58.283 which is more November-ish... 00:05:58.283 --> 00:05:59.280 December-ish. 00:05:59.619 --> 00:06:01.459 But I think it's really important to... 00:06:01.683 --> 00:06:03.453 Like, people were like, 00:06:03.559 --> 00:06:04.883 "Oh, it's going to get so cold." 00:06:04.883 --> 00:06:07.759 But, you know, it's going to be really important 00:06:07.759 --> 00:06:09.972 to experience that part of the project. 00:06:10.816 --> 00:06:13.413 [November] 00:06:20.676 --> 00:06:22.560 Because Mary is really apocalyptic, 00:06:22.560 --> 00:06:24.484 and imagines a world in which 00:06:24.484 --> 00:06:26.391 you don't have a supply chain 00:06:26.391 --> 00:06:27.990 in which you can get your needs... 00:06:27.990 --> 00:06:29.946 and so she's inventing things in which 00:06:29.946 --> 00:06:30.990 you can still live in, 00:06:30.990 --> 00:06:32.441 like an urban habitat. 00:06:32.863 --> 00:06:34.191 I am interested in gaining 00:06:34.191 --> 00:06:36.750 a few more degrees of relative freedom 00:06:37.359 --> 00:06:40.485 from giant, like, inhuman institutions. 00:06:55.791 --> 00:06:58.559 [MATTINGLY] Obviously, we're at a very unbalanced time right now 00:06:58.760 --> 00:07:00.116 as far as who has power 00:07:00.116 --> 00:07:01.347 and who has control-- 00:07:01.347 --> 00:07:03.114 and who doesn't. 00:07:03.114 --> 00:07:04.370 And who doesn't have access 00:07:04.370 --> 00:07:05.417 and who does. 00:07:07.078 --> 00:07:10.145 But then, the thing that I am optimistic about 00:07:10.145 --> 00:07:13.289 is how people, I think, can work together 00:07:13.289 --> 00:07:16.453 in a more grassroots and undercurrent way, 00:07:16.453 --> 00:07:20.685 and really make something that's a different world. 00:07:23.575 --> 00:07:25.685 I'd like to get to a future 00:07:25.685 --> 00:07:28.192 where we're actually living in this way, 00:07:28.192 --> 00:07:30.914 in real space and time. 00:07:32.851 --> 00:07:35.221 And the sculpture is just more of a symbol 00:07:35.221 --> 00:07:36.921 for this idea.