"Arctic Food Forest" sculpture

Arctic Food Forest

Public Art | 2016
Anchorage Museum, Anchorage, Alaska

Arctic Food Forest is a living sculptural ecosystem that addresses food insecurity and ecological adaptation in the context of a rapidly warming Arctic. Developed in partnership with the Anchorage Museum, the project establishes a regenerative agroforestry portable installation featuring cold-hardy, Zone 5 and 6 edible perennials—many of which have been identified in fossil records from earlier periods of global warming.

At its core, Arctic Food Forest uses public art as a platform to envision climate-adaptive urban agriculture. Constructed from reused IBC totes and filled with Alaskan soil, the installation not only models sustainable food systems in northern climates but also proposes a future in which public land and shared resources are integral to resilience. The project draws from predictive ecological modeling and historical climate data, offering both a practical intervention and a speculative tool for shaping long-term food futures in the Arctic region.

Project Details

• Year: 2016–Ongoing
• Location: Anchorage Museum, and Anchorage, Alaska
• Materials: Reused IBC totes, Alaskan soil, edible perennial plants
• Collaborators: Anchorage Museum, city of Anchorage, local ecological researchers

“Food is nearly four times more expensive in parts of Alaska than in the lower 48, and climate change is rapidly transforming what can grow where. Arctic Food Forest came from a desire to build a resilient ecosystem, one that could respond to a warming climate with knowledge from the past. Many of the edible perennials in the project appeared in fossil records during previous warming eras. By using IBC totes, soil from the region, and public space, we were able to imagine what a more self-sustaining, place-based yet portable food system might look like in the near future.”
—Mattingly

Description

The risks around food security in the Arctic are heightened by isolation, extreme shipping costs, and climate volatility. In Arctic Food Forest, Mattingly takes a multi-pronged approach to this issue: using art to make research visible, modeling ecological futures through planting, and activating public space for long-term sustainability. The edible landscape was intentionally constructed using locally available materials, and each plant species was selected not just for current climate compatibility, but also for resilience in projected warming scenarios.

The installation draws upon fossil records and past warming cycles to imagine future biodiversity. Its ongoing presence at the Anchorage Museum has helped catalyze broader municipal efforts to plant edible perennials in public spaces, illustrating how socially engaged art can initiate meaningful ecological and civic change.

Documentation