MARY MATTINGLY – PIPELINES AND PERMAFROST
2020-12-14Mary Mattingly exhibits a series of photographs that are driven by an urgency to document the speed of climate change and habitat fragmentation through images that appear as fluid timelines. These photographs interpret changes in land over geologic time (based on fossil records) in order to describe a place through its deep history. They also speculate on near futures as witness to an exponential speeding-up of geologic time due to human-induced climate change.
Pipelines and Permafrost was also driven by hope: hope that arises when people work together to combat destruction of a land base. It honors water, land, and forest protectors around the world who have fought for the rights of nature against increased industrialization. Many are Indigenous Peoples (or are in alliance) fighting to protect their nations and homelands against exploitation, many have struggled against extractive mining operations, logging corporations, and industrial agriculture* to protect primary forests, conserve animal habitats, plant species, and water. These photographs are particularly potent today because of the current administration’s relaxation of many environmental protections put in place by previous administrations, including the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act.
“I needed photography to do something that was beyond documenting, and specifically documenting widespread traumas through visible scars left on land. So I started to construct these collages that fluidly evoke places from deep time through to a speculative future. To me, they honor the work of everyone involved in fighting for habitats, and for humanity by proxy.” – Mary Mattingly
Opposite – Rematriation, 2020
Exhibition runs through to December 31st, 2020
Robert Mann Gallery
525 West 26th Street, Floor 2
New York
NY 10001
