Swale was a floating edible landscape built atop a 5,000 square-foot barge
that traveled to public piers in New York City welcoming visitors to harvest
perennial fruits and vegetables free of charge. Swale docked at public piers
in Brooklyn, Governors Island, and the Bronx in spaces adjacent to the city’s
public land. Public land in the city equates to 30,000 acres, as compared
with the 100 acres of community garden space where, if you have a plot,
picking food is allowed. Swale re-valued public land by using the ‘com-
mon law’ of the water as a loophole to do what had been illegal on public
land: legally, picking plants was considered destruction of property. Swale
followed the insights of social scientist Elinor Ostrom and traditional eco-
logical knowledge that claim that in a vibrant commons, people had a vital
role to play not only as beneficiaries, but also as co-creators, protectors,
and decision makers.
Swale was also experiential: people walked onto a barge adjacent to a city
park to find that it looked, smelled, and tasted like land but felt different. As
they grew accustomed to the moving vessel and their forested surround-
ings, their perspective shifted and soon it could feel like the city was mo-
ving back and forth, as the structure they were on began to feel stable.
People suddenly cared about everything: where the soil came from, where
the water came from that watered the plants, and how this translated to the
food they were eating at home. An edible forest built on an industrial barge
questions land use in the city, food systems, infrastructure, public health
priorities, and whether the establishment of a commons is still possible. It
can also model alternatives, request involvement, and put trust in city dwel-
lers as agents who care for shared resources. As a direct result of Swale and
the support of community groups, in 2017 the New York City Parks Depart-
ment opened their first land-based pilot – a public “foodway” at Concrete
Plant Park in the Bronx.
(text by Mary Mattingly)
SWALE
Mary Mattingly
Lives and works in New York.
arte: lugar : cidade | volume 1, número 1, maio/out. 2024 | doi: 10.22409/arte.lugar.cidade.v1i1.62033 112
Mary Mattingly is an interdisciplinary artist who is driven to explore imagi-
ned socio-ecological futures through co-creation. Based in New York City,
her work involves building sculptural ecosystems that prioritize access to
food, shelter, and clean water, resulting in large-scale participatory projects
around the world. These projects rely on absurdity and chance encounters
to provide discordant perspectives and shift perceptions.
Mattinglys sculptures foster coalition-building and help to strengthen com-
mon spaces. In 2016, her leadership of Swale, a floating sculpture and edible
landscape on a public barge in New York, inspired the New York City Parks
Department to establish the city’s first public “foodway.” The foodway is a
public space where people can legally forage in a city where it is otherwise
publicly prohibited.
Mattinglys work frequently activates public spaces and has also been
exhibited at institutions such as Storm King Art Center, the International
Center of Photography, Seoul Art Center, the Brooklyn Museum, Palais de
Tokyo, Barbican Art Gallery, and Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Havana.
Notable grants include those by the James L. Knight Foundation, the Harpo
Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, the Jerome Foundation, and
the Art Matters Foundation. Mattingly is a 2023 recipient of a Guggenheim
Fellowship.
mary.mattingly@gmail.com
https://marymattingly.com
Este documento é distribuído nos termos da licença Creative Commons
Atribuição Não Comercial 4.0 Internacional (CC-BY-NC)
© 2024 Mary Mattingly
arte: lugar : cidade | volume 1, número 1, maio/out. 2024 | doi: 10.22409/arte.lugar.cidade.v1i1.62033 113