As a result of the Wawona project and my collaboration with John Grade last winter/spring, I was asked to sit in on a talk about the sculpture as part of the Authorship Project at PR in Seattle. It should be interesting, I will be providing background on Wawona and drawing connections between John’s work and the wooden boat scene: craft, time, adventure, etc. I may also use the forum to explore the concept of contemporary art in history museum settings; after all this piece is going up at the Museum of History and Industry. Should be fun. 6pm.
Conceptual artist Mark Dion has put together a fascinating exhibit of contemporary art and mysterious ocean treasures for two Monaco museums. One part wunderkammer and one part art gallery, the show explores the wonders of the sea and our perceptions of its depth. For treasure, Dion draws on the collection of the Institute Oceanographique, and the art is displayed at the Nouveau Musee National de Monaco.
Because you were going to Monaco anyway…
Contemporary artists have taken notice of the waterfront, even in New York, the most lubberly and inwardly-focused of all the coastal cities. Connie Hockaday’s Boggsville Boatel is a new way to experience the funkiness of waterfront culture out in Far Rockaway, Queens, and, by virtue of the age of the boats involved, ot touch a former culture of recreational boating. She has strung together a flotilla of old cruisers, houseboats, and fishing boats, put them up for rent, and called it a “Boatel.” Who’s to stop her? This is the border of the sea. She has gotten a lot of press, from NYT to NPR.
The project is part of Sea Worthy, the collaborative series of exhibitions I warned you about this past spring. I went down to see it over the summer, and Connie ended up buying me breakfast. Hopefully we can work together in the future, there will be some contemporary art at the Antique Boat Museum soon. Not surprisingly, when I visited the Boatel on Sunday morning it was in a drizzly a post-party haze, with folks from other projects that turn refuse into floating art. Swimming Cities and Miss Rockaway were well represented, more about them later.
To find out more about the Boatel, visit the page at Flux Factory. You can still book tickets for this weekend, Connie has leant the place to Swimming Cities for a fundraiser for the India Raft Project. Take a look here.
A shot from the day I let Kyle Johnson and The Head and the Heart on board the Arthur Foss tugboat (remember?) made it into Rolling Stone Magazine this month, the one with Dylan on the cover. Cool huh? Arthur didn’t get in, though; the shot chosen came from later in the day when we wandered down to the Center for Wooden Boats. At least there is still a boat model in the shot. And that awesome band…
Second reblog ever. Cheers, Kyle!
Very excited to have my first published photo in Rolling Stone Magazine. The Head & The Heart shot at The Center For Wooden Boats. Their feature is in the upcoming issue with Bob Dylan on the cover.
