In May 2012, the Flock House Project, a group of self-contained ecosystems migrating around New York City’s five boroughs, premiered at the Clocktower Gallery. It comprised a group of sculptural microspheres that imagine and begin to construct an open framework where created environments are adaptable, collapsible, and modular. Flock House microspheres can be built in, transported to, and survive in and among urban centers along three planes of living (subterranean, ground, and sky).
Built collaboratively upon reclaimed, recycled, redesigned, and rethought materials, Flock House microspheres promote wider adoption of rainwater capture, inner-city agriculture, and solar and human-powered energy technologies. During Mattingly's residency at Clocktower Gallery, visitors were allowed to experience these pods through solitary time living-system experiments and radio interviews.
Through creating and documenting wearable environments and autonomous living systems, Mary Mattingly's practice collapses boundaries between performance, sculpture, architecture, and photography. Mary has participated in exhibitions at deCordova Sculpture Park, the International Center of Photography, Palais de Tokyo, and the Neuberger Museum of Art. She has had solo exhibitions at Occurrence Espace d’art et d’essai Contemporains in Montreal, Robert Mann Gallery, the New York Public Library, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and Galerie Adler in Frankfurt, Germany. In 2009, she launched the Waterpod Project, a floating sculptural living system and public space in New York City. In 2010, she participated in the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation residency (NYC), Skowhegan (ME), and was awarded an Art Matters Foundation travel grant. Currently, Mattingly is a fellow at Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology.
Her work has been featured in ArtForum, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Financial Times, Le Monde Magazine, ICON, Sculpture Magazine, Aperture, BBC News, and MSNBC. Mary’s current projects are itinerant, small-scale architectural interventions that morph into preexisting structures, reflecting city dwellers’ movements and exchanges while attempting to alter the despotic effects of economic development.
This program is part of the Clocktower Gallery's Emerging Artist Residency Program, made possible with the generous support of the Jerome Foundation.
