In addition to her wonderful presentation about her Waterpod™ project, Mary Mattingly stayed in Chicago for a few extra days to use Nomadic as a studio. It was a treat to have her around to share ideas, concepts, and approaches towards liminal existence. While she was there, Mary and Jim Duignan started the construction of the Mockhouse, which was a sort of jungle gym-like structure that we used to create yet another space within the space.
The Mockhouse was a variant of Mary’s Flockhouse which she installed at PS62 on Staten Island. The Flockhouse was a tiny dome structure filled with games, garden supplies, and other amenities as a microcosm of green living. Similarly, the Mockhouse was equipped with shelving, ladders and other nooks and spaces as a tiny mobile gallery. We were able to move the Mockhouse around Nomadic to install a variety of artworks throughout the rest of the exhibit. Personally, I liked sitting atop the eight-foot structure to just get a different view of the gallery below. We weren’t allowed to sit up there because of insurance risks, but I managed to live to tell the tale.
Having a gallery within a gallery was ‘meta’, I guess, but also fell right in line with the Russian nesting doll nature of the exhibit. We we able to place video installations inside of it, and hang art on the exterior, and it held its own as a curiosity in the middle of other curiosities. Sadly, Mary’s time at Nomadic had to come to an end, and we didn’t get to trick it out as much as was planned, but the Mockhouse was a nice reminder that sometimes, you just have to build something and move on.
Faiz
