The Lantern Parade

a "spectacle of over a thousand candle-lit, paper and bamboo lanterns, carried through Patterson Park."

EVERYONE HAD FUN....







Except for the rat who got steamrolled by a bunch of Moms with strollers...



Nana Projects

Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea

"I could tell you how many steps make up the streets rising like stairways, and the degree of the arcades’ curves, and what kind of zinc scales cover the roofs; but I already know this would be the same as telling you nothing. The city does not consist of this, but of relationships of space and the events of its past…”
- Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities



"The seven boats, built by Swoon and her friends from scrap wood and other discarded materials, begin their sail down the Hudson River on August 15th in Troy, New York, stopping along the way for musical and theatrical performances. Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea is a two-part exhibition merging Swoon’s recent portraits, found objects of urban decay and a floating sculptural city. One part of the exhibition is on the water. The other is in the gallery."

I had the pleasure of exploring this majestic city during my trip to NYC last weekend. Months earlier I had accidentally visited Swoon studio in Chelsea as she and a gritty crew of punk-sailors were furiously engaged in constructing the Switchback flotilla. The studio was a fabricator's theater of salvaged wood, nail guns, and strewn prints. When I laid eyes on Swoon's maquettes, I knew that I would have to return to NYC to see the her vision realized.

As I wandered around the docks and adjacent Deitch warehouse last Friday, I could not help but think I was seeing one of Calvino's invisible cites made opaque. After sharing my enthusiasm with the friendly gallery assistant, he promised to pass along my praise to Swoon. My new friend Oeri then asked if I could help him carry a canoe out to the East River, explaining that he needed to tie up a loose boat. I happily obliged, and was rewarded when Oeri invited me along for the trip. We canoed around the dock, ducking ropes and maneuvering against the recycled rafts. I pulled the errant boat against our canoe and Oeri retied the worn out line. As we paddled back to the dock, my companion said Swoon wanted to take the boats to Venice, but they were unsure how to get them there. He said they could build new boats in Venice for less than the cost of shipping the originals to the Mediterranean. Either way, by cargo container or new construction, it looks like the Kublai Khan wont have to rely on Marco Polo to see through Swoon's Swimming Cities.

Behold, the floating city of dreams...









switchbacksea.org

Visionary Crosswalks - MTR

Last week I set up my first public art intervention in Baltimore. "VXW-MTR"is a continuation of the Visionary Crosswalks project I started in Bushwick, Brooklyn last spring. I set up the installation along Mount Royal Ave, between Lafayette and Lanvale, next to the MICA green. After jaywalking across this block on a weekly basis - and seeing many others doing the same -, this became the first public space in Baltimore I felt comfortable working within.

For this crosswalk I enhanced my original singular, neon-orange, over-spray design by drawing three parallel lines connected by corresponding "X" markings. The overall layout is derived from the surrounding architecture of the plazas in front of the MICA Brown and Main buildings. The Brown building's diagonal layout opens up to Mount Royal Avenue, clearly suggesting a visual and pedestrian connection to the historical Main building. It no surprise then that students, professors, and workers are constantly cutting across Mount Royal Avenue mid-block. VXW-MTR is my attempt to both highlight this casual path to motorists, and "legitimize" the experience as a pedestrian.







In addition to the street markings, I am also bringing an element of performance to my Visionary Crosswalks project through my inclusion of "G-Mack the Construction Guy". G-Mack is the character which I embodied during the nighttime installation of the crosswalk. As a character he serves three purposes: 1) to convince possible authorities that whatever I am doing in the middle of the night is legitimate, 2) as a personal/social entry point to the project for other pedestrians, and 3) as humorous acknowledgment of my role as the artist in creating this piece of slightly absurd direct-actionist, intervention art. Look out for future appearances from G-Mack, both as a construction worker and soon-to-be crossing guard!