Mary Mattingly in conversation with UMASS Lowell art historian Kirsten Swenson: How can art and utopian thought cultivate systematic social change?
Tuesday March 3rd at 6:30pm, Kennedy 406
Mary Mattingly is a visual artist who works in social practice, photography, performance, and installation (marymattingly.com). Among her recent projects is Swale, an edible landscape established on a barge which travels on the waterways of New York City. Swale circumnavigates New York’s public land laws, allowing anyone to come on to the barge and pick free, fresh food. Swale instigated and co-created the “foodway” in Concrete Plant Park, the Bronx in 2017. The “foodway” is the first time New York City Parks is allowing people to publicly forage in over 100 years. Her photography was featured in the recent issue, “Earth” in the magazine Aperture (2019). Mattingly will be in conversation with Professor Kirsten Swenson, https://www.uml.edu/fahss/art/faculty/swenson-kirsten.aspx Swenson’s many publications on contemporary art include the anthology she co-authored with Emily Eliza Scott, Critical Landscapes: Art, Space, and Politics (University of California Press, 2015). Swenson is co-curator of the exhibition, Local Ecologies, on display at UMassLowell through March 6 (https://sites.uml.edu/local-ecologies/)
