Living during the longest war the United States has participated in, and rethinking uses for its infrastructure as an act of reconciliation is the driver for Mary Mattingly's "Everything At Once."

What do farming, industry, and even education share with the military? What are the connections between military action and material extraction in the U.S.? How do we understand a bigger system that was written for us, before us, and by proxy perpetuated by us? The ever presence of objects with violent histories undeniably draws out the connections and contradictions we live with everyday in the U.S. With an expanding military economy and slow erosion of public services, the sculpture titled “Everything At Once” engages not in silence or silos but instead turns outward to re-imagine public life together.

Charred wood from a U.S. public school, a military trailer used in Afghanistan, public water, agricultural tank, plants, and light make a bridge for communication and a platform for contemplation. “Everything At Once” asks: Can we process complex histories through the transformation of objects in order to collectively imagine other ways of being in the world?

"Everything At Once" was commissioned through the City of Boulder Office of Arts + Culture public art program "Experiments in Public Art," an ongoing series of projects that serve as a city-wide laboratory expanding the potential of public art.