Category Archives: Gathering

Flock House Books and Documentation – Bemis Center – Old Market

Cassidy and I spent time studying the Flock House documentation and reference books integrated into the exhibit at Bemis Center – Old Market. Here are some quotes I copied from three sources describing the work of Mary Mattingly.

Ecotopia, (2007) by Brian Wallis, Edward Earle, Christopher Phillips, Carol Squiers. Edited by Joanna Lehan. International Center of Photography: Steidl: Gottingen,  Germany

Focuses on posthuman navigators, “characters whose boundless creativity is their only true survival mechanism”

“Mattingly presents us with a future in which civilization as we know it has been dismantled, and a generation of nomadic post-consumers roam the irretrievably altered landscape. These “navigators,” as she refers to them, busy themselves creating and utilizing adaptive technology. Natural beauty remains, and human communion with technology has become organic and to some degree sustaining.” p 166

Nature, Documents of Contemporary Art (2012) Mary Mattingly In Conversation with Shane Danaher/2010 Edited by Jeffrey Kastner. Whitechapel Gallery: London, The MIT Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts

Danaher describes Mattingly’s work as “blurring the line between ‘art’ and ‘experimental engineering’.

MM – “the in-between spaces are one of the most interesting areas of art today, and they are clear ways for art to intervene in society.” p. 177

MM -“I witness people’s resourcefulness more and more, and I see people in the city wanting to connect with nature. p 180

Eleanor Heartney, “Art for the Anthropocene Era.” Four artists take on the challenges of our environmental crisis. Art in America, February 2014. pp 76 – 81

Mary Mattingly’s work is featured with three other artists. “These artists’ work centers on the recognition that we have entered into the ‘Anthropocene’ – a new geologic era marked by the impact of human activity on the earth.” p. 76

Mary Mattingly looks “…toward what she refers to as the posthuman future, reflecting her conviction that humanity will survive only if we reduce our footprint on Earth.” Her projects “explore the possibility of self-sustaining environments.” p. 80

Flock Houses as “geodesic domes covered with tarps, are made from reclaimed materials and equipped with systems for rainwater capture, inner-city agriculture and solar and human-powered energy. These modular units are designed to hitch to vehicles for easy transport around the city.”

“Mattingly has also taken her own critique of materialism to heart with a 2013 performance in which she fashioned all of her possessions into a twine-wrapped ball and dragged it across the Bayonne Bridge, which stretched between Bayonne, N.J., and Staten Island.”

Family Gallery – Drawings created in NYC Flock House, Bemis Center – Old Market

When I arrived at Bemis Center, Laura Carlson gave me these drawings. She said that a family went into the NYC Flock House and stayed for a long time. As you will see, here is a treasure trove of sustained work, envisioning and compositional detail.

Family Gallery-engineer 72 800

“Basically, a new concept for a conventional tent” – Engineer, from 7 Questions

Angelina - 1

Angelina – 1

Angelina - 2

Angelina – 2

Angelina - 3

Angelina – 3

 

 

 

 

Bowden, Age 19 months - 1

Bowden, Age 19 months – 1

Bowden, age 19 months - 2

Bowden, age 19 months – 2

Family Gallery-Bowden 72 800 3

Bowden, Age 19 months – 3

Bowden, age 18 months - 4

Bowden, Age 18 months – 4

 

 

 

 

 

Conversation with Janice Samuel – Bemis Center, Old Market

Janice Samuel came to the Flock House Omaha exhibit to meet her art class from Metropolitan Community College.  Walking through the gallery, she carefully studies the photos.

Walking around the NYC Flock House, she peers inside. “It looks peaceful,” The smile she gives me is peaceful, too.

Janice Samuel 2 800

She sits down at the large table to draw a Flock House

Her drawing like a beehive, hexagons.

Janice Samuel beehive FH 800

“Here is the door.” (Lower left side)

“There will be plants along the base.”

“She will go inside and stay in it’s peace for a long time.”

Conversation with Gary Mosley II, at Bemis Center – Old Market

Gary Mosley II 800

Gary is visiting Bemis Center with his art class. He will be a concept artist or animator.

Gary Mosely II reaches for his pen in his backpack, and folds his tall body on the stool to work at the large table. He starts to draw, rapidly moving his pen, explaining that the Flock House reminds him of a lantern – only with more space. Or maybe a chair, like a paper flower, with petals. Or a lounge like a house. His pen races as his mind moves from idea to idea and his pen from image to image.

Gary Mosley II 800 1

On Google he saw paper lanterns as flowers blooming. He envisions lounges distributed. Inviting people to chat and relax and paint.

 

Gary Mosley II 800 2

Flower shapes. His inspiration. Light, not heavy. “Light that does not feel humid.”

Gary Mosley II 3 “I will install a fan on top of the petals.”  Flock House. “Nomadic but a hint of technology.”

“Make a heat source to heat the water and then cool it.  Energy. Make things move without human hands.” He begins to write phrases next to his technical drawing, flowing down the page.

Gary Mosley II 4

“I have an idea.  For nighttime, paper lanterns above it.  We need to look at the shape of flowers for inspiration or more organic shapes.”

Cassidy is sitting across the table looking at a book. Ectopia. A photo on the cover of Mary Mattingly’s Posthuman navigator.

Ectopia 800

Gary glances over,  responding with ink, quickly sketching a human form.

Gary Mosley II 400 5

Then envisions an ocean house, more tropical. “One to fit that motif.”

He would like to work more on the Flock House project, but doesn’t know if he “has the time or ability to come down to Old Market.”

 

 

Conversation with April Earl at Bemis Center – Old Market

July 2, 1014 at Bemis Center – Flock House exhibit

April Earle 7 questions 800

“What a peaceful place to work.” April  says as she looks around the Flock House exhibit, which offers room for study and sketching. April works at the Main Omaha Public Library, where Alex Priest, exhibitions assistant at Bemis, curates exhibits at the Michael Phipps Gallery.

As soon as April finishes writing her responses to the 7 Questions, we talk about what she envisions in a Flock House.

April: Cisterns. I can imagine making a thing to let in rainwater, and then moving it closed when you have enough.  There is a new source of water every time it rains.

April: Dakota needs to come here. He lives this way; he knows how to do it, how to survive. I ask her how to bring him here. She answers, I don’t know where to find him, but I will try.

April: The most important idea here is that you can make a house out of whatever you have. I have seen villages of displaced people who make homes, even of cardboard, and they become a village.

April: Another important idea is not feeling the need to fix things up. Still, I still think there is a need to make it your own. (With a Flock House being self-sufficient) you can show how clever you were. How you solved the problem of getting electricity and water. Some would really feel that need for invention, to just create.  Others would want theirs as cute as it could be.

April: In a flock of these houses, I would expect enormous handcrafted diversity. Astonishing invention. Yet, sharing the knowledge of these inventions with one another.

April is on her lunch hour, and only has a moment to enter the Flock House and make a quick sketch.

 Flock House gives focus to a Ray of Hope

Flock House structure gives focus to a Ray of Hope

Flock House as idea and creative space

The Flock House in NYC

The Flock House in NYC

I invite you to the Flock House Project: Omaha gallery exhibit in Bemis Center in Old Market to take part in a Palimpsest project of research and art making.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Tuesday – Saturday, 11 am – 5 pm, July 1 – August 4, The New York City Flock House will be open to visitors as a space of inquiry and research into the idea of Flock House. I invite you to visit and work in the inquiry phase. You will have the opportunity to think about the idea of Flock House and answer 7 questions. This is a warm up to art making.

Open for design work and envisioning Flock House July 1 - August 4

Open for design work and envisioning Flock House July 1 – August 4

I will supply the NYC Flock House with paper and drawing materials. You will enter the Flock House to imagine a Flock House you would build, and what you would do there. Draw your ideas and write about a project you envision.

Enter to make your contribution to the Palimpsest project archive.

Enter to make your contribution to the Palimpsest project archive.

I will add your writing and drawings to an Online archive for the Flock House Omaha: Project.

P1600862

Return to the Omaha Flock House at Bemis Center Old Market, August 6 – 16 to help transform these ideas and drawings into Palimpsest compositions.