Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea stops in Albany
On August 15, 2008 artist SWOON’s “Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea”, a fleet of seven intricately crafted boats fashioned out of scrap wood, will embark on a voyage down the Hudson River from Troy, NY to Deitch Studios in Long Island City, Queens. Using the vessels as a backdrop, a performance troupe guided by playwright Lisa D’Amour will perform in towns along the banks of the river. On August 16, at 8 p.m., a performance will occur at Albany’s riverfront park at the Corning Preserve. The project features seven vessels constructed by SWOON from salvaged materials. Each raft is powered with alternative energy sources, including biodiesel, solar and steam. SWOON’s larger-than-life “invented landscape” installation at Deitch Studios will receive the fleet September 7. The show opens to the public that day.
SWOON is a Brooklyn-based street artist who creates life-sized portraits of people she meets, using woodcut block prints and paper cutouts. SWOON’s galleries are city walls, often in the environments that inspired the prints. Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea is SWOON’s second solo exhibition with Deitch Projects. She is an international artist with major pieces in the Museum of Modern Art and the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Inspired by influences ranging from German Expressionist wood block prints to Indonesian shadow puppets, SWOON is a master of using cut paper to play with positive and negative space in a conceptually driven exploration of the street environments.
On this project SWOON collaborates with playwright Lisa D’Amour who created a performance that the raft crew will deliver in towns along their voyage. SWOON also teams up with circus composer Sxip Shirey, Kinetic Steam Works from San Francisco, musical act Dark Dark Dark and Hudson river advocacy groups as the boats float down the river.
In the summer of 2006, SWOON and the Miss Rockaway Armada launched a similar project on the Mississippi river. The project was covered by dozens of local newspapers, radio, and television stations, and was featured in The New York Times and a number other national publications. The rafts — made out of recycled materials from New York City, New Orleans and San Francisco — floated for two summers and traveled approximately 800 river miles. More info at www.missrockaway.org.
“Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea” is a two-part exhibit merging SWOON’s newest portraits, found objects of urban decay and a sculptural floating city. Please see the website www.switchbacksea.org for tour dates.
www.switchbacksea.org
www.deitchprojects.com
For information on SWOON and Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea, contact A’yen Tran at ayen@switchbacksea.org. Deitch Studios is located at 4-40 44th Drive, Long Island City, New York.