Mary Mattingly's Waterfront Development | "New York Close Up" | Art21

What's the latest trend in New York City real estate?

Over the course of the summer and fall of 2013, artist Mary Mattingly constructs and occupies "Triple Island" (2013), an outdoor sculpture overlooking the East River. Situated in the newly developed Pier 42 public park—a waterfront area flooded by Hurricane Sandy in 2012—the sculpture rests on buoyant 55 gallon drums, which allow it to float in the event of rising sea levels. Mattingly and friends build "Triple Island" out of a mix of recycled, donated, and custom-made materials. The three main structures—a living space, greenhouse, and community garden—together form a system for living off the grid in the densely-populated Lower East Side. A self-described apocaylptic thinker, Mattingly views the project as an experimental model for an imagined future where environmental degradation and collapsed economies render current ways of living in urban areas untenable. "I think 'Triple Island' has a very specific aesthetic intention," says Mattingly, "and it is to imagine a world with leftover materials and how you would build and what it would look like." Through summer heat and winter cold, the artist and several intrepid volunteers live in the sculpture, collecting rain for water, harnessing solar energy for power, and harvesting a garden for food. Residents' motives for participating vary widely; for artist Ivan Gilbert, "Triple Island" offers a chance to gain "a few more degrees of relative freedom from giant inhuman institutions." Partnering with a coalition of advocacy organizations, such as the Hester Street Collaborative and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Mattingly's project is less an experiment in individualistic self-sufficiency as it is in the communal sharing of local resources. Featuring the works "Triple Island" (2013) and "Flock House Project" (2012--13) with music by Chris Zabriskie.

Mary Mattingly (b. 1978, Rockville, Connecticut, USA) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Learn more about the artist at:
http://www.art21.org/newyorkcloseup/artists/mary-mattingly/

"Triple Island" (2013)
http://www.tripleisland.org/

CREDITS | "New York Close Up" Created & Produced by: Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Producer & Editor: Rafael Salazar & Ava Wiland. Cinematography: Nick Ravich, Rafael Salazar & Ava Wiland. Sound: Wesley Miller, Nick Ravich & Ava Wiland. Associate Producer: Ian Forster. Design & Graphics: Crux Studio & Open. Artwork: Mary Mattingly. Music: Chris Zabriskie. Thanks: Hannah Black, CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities, Ian Daniel, Esteban Gaspar Silva, Ivan Gilbert, Good Old Lower East Side, Hester Street Collaborative, Chuck Lin, Greg Lindquist, Kelly Loudenberg, Lower East Side Ecology Center, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Nina Lucey, Rey Mendoza, Nancy Nowacek, Jess Segall, Mike Shuwerk, Lauren Slowick, Daija Solano, Two Bridges Neighborhood Council, Rand Weeks, Darren Will & Moira Williams. An Art21 Workshop Production. © Art21, Inc. 2014. All rights reserved.

"New York Close Up" is supported, in part, by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; The Lambent Foundation; Toby Devan Lewis; the Dedalus Foundation, Inc., The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and by individual contributors.

[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.