Mary Mattingly hauled a nearly 4-foot-tall bundle of belongings, all wrapped in twine, across Bayonne Bridge from Staten Island to New Jersey.

Police sirens started blaring behind her, growing louder until three or four squad cars approached her before an officer agreed to escort her across the bridge.

“It wasn’t like I was doing something illegal; I was doing something that was strange,” Mattingly said.

She was filming without a permit.

Mattingly, a New York-based sculptor and photographer, dragged the “boulders” around as part of a performance piece showing how modern society is awash with overconsumption and greed. This message is carried through much of Mattingly’s work, including doctored photographs, performance art and, of course, the boulders.

The “man-made boulders” can be up to twice the size of Mattingly, and are similar to giant balls of yarn that tie her possessions up into a bundle. The masses are comprised of everyday objects: cassette tapes, a globe or an old magazine subscription.

The boulders are just one of her pieces currently on display at Light Work Gallery, located on the edge of the Syracuse University campus. The free exhibit, titled “Mass and Obstruction,” will be open through March 10.

The normally spacious gallery at Light Work is a temporary home for several of the greed-depicting boulders, a stark contrast to the gleaming white walls interrupted only by photographs and prints.

The theme of overconsumption is repeated in much of Mattingly’s work, which also covers environmental and ecological concerns.

On the walls, photographs and a map of the world are hung up, showing where elements used to make mass produced items, such as cell phones, are harvested.

Mattingly uses Adobe Photoshop to create places that don’t exist — a person dragging mounds of trash down the road or people sitting amongst waste in a fictional river. The images predict what could be a result of environmental change.

The photos aren’t meant to be understood as 100 percent real because photography can be manipulated, Mattingly said.

Mary Lee Hodgens, curator of the “Mass and Obstruction” exhibit, was in charge of deciding which of Mattingly’s pieces should be shown at Light Work. She said it was very hard to choose what to display because Mattingly is a “very prolific artist.”

“I think that partially the interest in her work is that this is a topic that is on people’s mind right now and Mary’s response to it is so hopeful,” Hodgens said.

Mattingly hasn’t only created pieces to sit on display in a gallery. She has also conducted large, experimental performance art pieces, offering solutions to problems that may arise as a result of climate change.

In 2014, she constructed a houseboat on the back of an old barge and then lived on the structure for six months. The “Waterpod” was completely self-sufficient, complete with floating gardens, food grown on board, a waste recycling system and solar-, wind- and bike-powered energy. The boat visited all five boroughs of New York City.

“That’s been a lot of my work, making living systems like that and documenting them and trying to play with the document to create some version of a proposal for another time and space,” Mattingly said.

The artwork has sparked many discussions in the gallery. Hodgens recalled a group of high school students that toured the gallery, saw Mattingly’s pieces and reflected on their own levels of consumption.

“They were all kind of critical of their parents in saying it is just ridiculous how much shopping and acquiring and storing of just stuff,” Hodgens said.

Hodgens added that she loves when people walk into the gallery and ask questions. Some people want to discuss what the art means. Others question whether it’s even art.

“It’s a pile of trash. It’s a massive pile of trash. Why would you ever want that much trash?” Hodgens said. “Where are you going with your trash? Are you keeping your trash? Are you storing your trash?”

“The artist is saying, ‘What are we doing with all this trash?’” Hodgens said.

Edward Morris, a professor in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, said that the issues Mattingly raises through her art are important, not only for SU students, but for anyone to consider.

“These topics are the topics of our time. Particularly for a younger generation,” said Morris, who is also a co-founder of The Canary Project, an art collective that works to expand knowledge of climate change. “These issues are just going to become more and more important.”

For those who believe climate change doesn’t exist, Mattingly said she’s not trying to start a fight and respects that people have their opinions. It’s very hard to prove something exists without tangible evidence, such as a boulder full of belongings or the crushing weight of our greed and consumption.

Published on February 7, 2016 at 9:48 pm

Contact Rachel: rcgilber@syr.edu