Mary Mattingly Explores Water, Ecology, Art, and Public Space in UB Lecture

Mattingly’s lecture, held on the top floor of UB’s iconic Hayes Hall, blended photography, video, storytelling, poetry, and interactive Q&A, to offer a deep dive into the process, evolution, and intent behind her impressive body of work.

Water is more than a material in Mattingly’s art; it’s a recurring narrative thread that shapes her creative vision. Growing up in rural Massachusetts, she had witnessed firsthand how water shaped her community, from polluted drinking sources to seasonal flooding. The integration of water and sculpture first came to her as she thought about the mechanisms for DIY water filtration—soda bottles filled with a layer of sand, pebbles, and carbonated charcoal.

Over time, Mattingly’s water clocks continued to evolve. In “Ebb of a Spring Tide,” water flowed through doors, ladders, pots, and planters growing salt-tolerant foods—all at the speed of the East River as the tide rose and fell. In this iteration, water was no longer a threat, it was an inhabitant. These plants were later repurposed for “Night Gardens,” photographic collages meant to depict a more verdant, riparian future. Another project collected water from the East River in tubs containing small steel disks that would rust, disintegrate, and collect salt, creating tidal maps as the water evaporated.

Throughout her presentation, Mattingly emphasized transparency in her sculptural work: “It’s important to be able to see how it’s made and how it works.”

The sphere is another recurring form in Mattingly’s work. Her affinity for spheres began with the creation of wearable homes, which quickly expanded into a host of other projects, from an aluminum sphere equipped with an aquaponic system that required manual pumping to keep its fish and plants alive, to balls of her own excess possessions that she bundled with twine and dragged through the streets of New York.

The latter project sparked a deeper investigation into the origins of those materials—where they were mined, manufactured, and distributed—bridging the outward-facing nature of her performance art with a more introspective, research-driven process. “That balance might be more of an artistic process, but I believe it’s also architectural,” she speculated. 

In 2009, she launched “Waterpod,” a self-sufficient sphere set on a barge off the coast of New York City. The process of bringing her concept to reality was a tremendously fruitful learning experience—from consultation with the Coast Guard and learning about obscure governmental processes to securing permits and community board approvals and lots and lots of paperwork.

Living aboard the barge for six months with four friends, Mattingly gained invaluable insight, chief among them, the importance of collaboration. She found that the more people involved in a project, the richer the feedback and the stronger the outcome. 

Seven years later, she introduced “Swale,” her most well-known project to date. Inspired by the closing of a neighborhood community garden and the increasing cost of fresh food, “Swale” was created as a provocative response to local city law that prohibited foraging on public land. Cleverly using the common law of water as a loophole, Mattingly designed a 5,000 square foot edible landscape on a barge docked beside the city. For two years, this installation provided the community with free fresh produce, served as a public gathering space, welcomed neighbors in to help care for the space, and created awareness of the law and demand for change.

“I’d hoped that Swale, in a small way, would show that this floating prototype could change how a city imagines public spaces and public waterways,” Mattingly explained. “And with community partners really pushing alongside us, especially at Concrete Plant Park in the Bronx—the place where we launched—the city piloted its first foodway.”

Mattingly’s next project is coming a little closer to home for the UB Community. She has purchased a barge—her first owned vessel—which is currently docked in the Erie Canal near Medina. Inspired by the success of “Swale” and benefitting from lessons learned along the way, this floating garden will be featured in the inaugural Medina Triennial in 2026. True to form, Mattingly has already begun engaging with the community to get their feedback and incorporate their input to create an innovative, welcoming, and nourishing resource for the people of Medina.