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Wednesday, October 15th, 2008
Todd Seelie Documents Swoon’s Swimming Cities
At last! Todd Seelie has finally posted his photography documenting the journey of Swoon’s Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea down the Hudson. The self-built armada left upstate Troy, NY and sailed down the river, arriving at its final location at Deitch Studios, Long Island City for the opening night celebration of the artist’s monumental warehouse installation. The Art Collectors sends a personal thank you out to Seelie for beautifully capturing the three week excursion and giving us a rare glimpse of this artistic voyage. Read on for more pics, or better yet, go visit Todd’s site for the entire thing. Read the rest of this entry »
Thursday, February 26th, 2009
Win a Swoon, Make a Hippy Happy
To help raise funds for her ambitious new undertaking, Swimming Cities of Serenissima, Swoon is raffling off an original work on wood. All proceeds will go towards realizing this grand vision, comprised of a fleet of hand-made vessels that will set sail on the Adriatic Sea, from Slovenia to Venice, Italy.
Raffle tickets are $30 each, and contestants may purchase multiple entries until March 25th. The winner will be announced March 26th. Go get them here
If you’re not already convinced, take a moment to read this letter from Swoon:
Last year, with a team of about 75 friends, crew, and collaborators, I built a flotilla of rafts out of salvaged bits of New York City. Our precarious floating home traveled 140 miles south along the Hudson River. What left as the refuse of the city’s mega construction returned as six vessels trying to encompass a whole world (the seventh died along the way).
This year, with some of those same vessels, and some new, we begin the second leg of our journey. Our destination? It’s the city whose outrageous countenance, rising straight up out of the ocean like that was a fine sort of thing for a city to do, was our original inspiration. Yes ma’am, we’re headed across the Adriatic Sea toward our first love, Venice.
This year we are a crew of 35, all artists, musicians, crackerjack mechanics, and folks who specialize in big, impossible, ridiculous dreams. We will put on a performance and cobble together a cabinet of wonders. We will, in our form, be working on themes of recycling and reuse, considering the footprint of a human community on the planet, and on issues of climate change. We have not found a solution to floods and sinking cities or where to go next, but we know that it’s important to us to create art and community at the same time as we seek a different relationship to our world.
We are starting in the Karst region of Slovenia (a former forest barren to this day after its large trees were cut for pilings in Venice), and skirting the northern coast of the Adriatic. For fun and a little mischief, we will be crashing the Venice Biennale.
Since we are doing all of this in an otherwise collapsed economy we need lots of help. It’s a big project that we are trying to fund with the help of many small contributions from people who would like to be involved and help us get these crafts afloat — even if you just think we’re cheeky and want to see if we’ll sink. This raffle is just one of the many ways we’re trying to get back on the water.
Thursday, September 11th, 2008
Maritime Theater with Swoon
As an extension of her breathtakingly monumental installation, Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea, Swoon and co. will unveil three nights of music and performance, staged on the artist’s floating fleet, currently docked outside Deitch Studios in New York’s East River. Collaborators include playwright Lisa D’Amour, the band Dark Dark Dark, and circus composer, Sxip Shirley. Performances run Sept. 11, 12, 13 at 8pm.
Image/Source: Deitch
Monday, September 8th, 2008
!!!Dzine and Swoon!!!
Last night, Deitch Studios, Long Island City, put the exclamation mark on the opening of the NYC art season with two truly spectacular shows. Dzine’s The Beautiful Struggle is an eye-popping display of intricately handcrafted bling, from bejeweled paintings to pimped-out cars and bikes to neon signs and mirrors. Swoon’s Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea is also meticulously hand-made, but uses more earthy and everyday materials such as paper, wood and rope to construct a grand installation that is the perfect counterpoint to Dzine’s glittery excess. To top off the event, after a three week voyage down the Hudson River, Swoon has docked her floating fleet outside the warehouse installation and will kick off three consecutive nights of music and performance on September 11th.
Monday, August 18th, 2008
Swoon’s Switchback Sea hits New York Times
We’ve already talked about Swoon’s ambitious new aquatic project, Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea, and will certainly be back in a few weeks after the opening of her show. In the meantime, the New York Times has published an extensive article and photo feature on the artist and her floating fleet.
Read the article here and view the slideshow here.
Image: Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times
Friday, August 15th, 2008
Swoon Navigates the Hudson
Today marks the launch of Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea, a massive mobile art installation developed by Swoon, in collaboration with several artists and performers. Building upon ideas first explored by The Miss Rockaway Armada, a fleet of seven handmade vessels have been constructed to look like a cross between boats and chunks of earth broken off from the main land, and floated out to sea. For three weeks, the ships will navigate down the Hudson River, starting in Troy, NY, bringing theatrical and musical performances to several towns along the way. On September 7th the group will hit their final destination – a constructed landscape outside of Deitch Projects along the East River in Long Island City, Queens. Here, a celebration will be held to commemorate the opening night of Swoon’s new gallery installation.
To commemorate the event, Paper Monster has released a new print (pictured below). Entitled Switchback Sisters, the silkscreen ink and stained edition measures 11 x 32 inches, signed and numbered by Swoon in an edition of 106. All proceeds will help support the many people contributing to the traveling project. Buy it here.
Scheduled Switchback Sea Stops (more to come?):
Troy, August 15, 8pm in Downtown Riverfront Park
Albany, August 16, 8pm in the Riverfront Park of Corning Preserve
Saugerties, August 20, 8pm at the Saugerties Lighthouse www.saugertieslighthouse.com
Friday, July 3rd, 2009
Ways of Seeing @ Black Rat Press
Photos courtesy of Remi/Rough.
London’s Black Rat Press unveiled its July show, Ways of Seeing, on the 2nd. It will run until the July 24th. Featuring Swoon, Matt Small, and Brian Adam Douglas, the exhibition explores the different approaches of these three stylistically cohesive contemporaries.
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009
Venice Biennale Roundup
Image: TheArtCollectors/Jeff Newman
With opening week of the 53rd Venice Biennale in full swing, there’s no lack of shortlists and reviews to keep you busy. Planning a trip between now and November 22? We’ve done the sifting for you – Here’s some reading to get you on the inside track:
Francesco Bonami, director of the 2003 Venice Biennale and curator for the next Whitney Biennial served as guest writer for the New York Times’ The Moment blog last week. Get his inside view of the event here
The NY Times also informs us about Pop Minimalist, John Wesley’s, mammoth retrospective, organized by the Prada Foundation, which runs till Oct. 4th in conjunction with the Biennale. Read on
Artinfo is on the ground and tweeting throughout the opening week, while our friends over at Art Observed caught the early look and posted regular updates during preview weekend. Check them out here
The Guardian’s resident art critic, Adrian Searle gives a video tour of some highlights as well as a more comprehensive and academic review here, or check out the paper’s blog here for a quick don’t-miss list.
The London Times and The Independent also served up overviews.
And for the street art enthusaists, Vandalog has posted a ton of images of the arrival of Swoon’s Swimming Cities in Venice, while Shepard Fairey has kept fans updated on his decoration of the city here and here
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009
Serennisima Final Performances + Benefit
Swimming Cities of Serenissima, Swoon’s most recent traveling art armada, has nearly completed its voyage along the Adriatic, arriving at its final destination in Venice. Tomorrow, June 4, the crew will launch three days of Clutches of a Cuckoo, a variety show of sorts, including music from the band Dark, Dark, Dark and live theater performances. Back in New York, Honey Space will hold a silent auction and raffle benefit on Thursday, June 4, to help raise much needed funds for the project.
For more info on the project, check out our previous coverage of Swimming Cities here
Wednesday, May 13th, 2009
And They’re Off – Serenissima Sets Sail
Swoon and company set sail on the Adriatic Sea today, departing Slovenia for Trieste, Italy on a new fleet of handmade vessels. It’s not too late to lend a helping hand to this ambitious project. Switchback Sister prints are still available over at PaperMonster, with all proceeds benefiting Swimming Cities of Serenissima.
Once again, thanks goes out to Tod Seelie for the inspiring image. We can’t wait to see more from this talented photographer as the Serenissima’s voyage gets under way.