(image from the Can Factory, courtesy Susannah Tantemsapya - thanks Susannah!)

Hi Folks,

As a result of our summer residency at MassMoCA last year and further testing and refining over the winter, we have just completed our Liberum Kayak broadsheet.  You can download a pdf files containing everything you need to build your own below (they’re big, so watch out) or stop by the studio to pick one up (they’re printed on green newsprint and are very pretty).  Send us some photos if you do build one.  See you on the water this summer.

Mare Liberum, Liberum Kayak Broadsheet – prints to 22.5″ x 30″

Come check out Field Notes from the Gowanus at the American Can Factory in April, and thanks to the Can Factory’s Nathan Elbogen, Canary Project’s Ed and Susannah, and to Radhika Subramaniam and Kristina Kaufman of the New School for including us in the FNG program.

About the Liberum Kayak

Locally sourced bamboo, plywood, re-purposed vinyl museum signage, zip ties, epoxy, and upholstery tacks (14’ x 36”)

This is a Liberum Kayak (2011), designed by the Mare Liberum collective. The bamboo was sourced and harvested in Queens, and the vinyl is repurposed signage from a museum. The kayak was hand built, and has proven to be stable and sound after several earlier (less-successful) attempts. Mare Liberum, a collaboration between Ben Cohen, DylanGauthier and Stephan von Muehlen, is a collaborative printmaking, boatbuilding and activism project which we created in response to large-scale gentrification plans for the Gowanus area in the mid 2000’s. We started building improvised watercraft out of found materials, mainly plywood salvaged from construction sites around the neighborhood.  It was a way for us to get out onto and explore the Canal, in order to experience that site’s particular state of natural, industrial and post-industrial landscapes, its waste, toxins, detritus and curious lifeforms.  We wanted to go there because it was open space, and probably also because many were vying for it at the time. These boats allowed us to make work there as artists, and to have access to a rare – albeit highly toxic – sanctuary in the middle of the city. As part of our practice, we also print and distribute broadsheets and one-off editions that combine historical narratives of place with our own methods, research, and stories of our explorations on the water. These broadsheets often include our own boat plans that simplify traditional boatbuilding methods and lower the technical barriers for others seeking to get into closer contact with the city’s waterways.

Moving the Boatel, Natalia Porter’s Trajinera and Josephine and the Princess Ladyboat out of Marina 59 in preparation for Hurricane Irene.

Storm StrategiesAug 26, 2011Photos: 56

It was out at Marina59 in the Rockaways that we came to launch the kayaks.  Here’s a report-back:

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Hello Boatbuilders!

shanghai'd, shipwrecked, marooned -- kayak workshopAug 13, 2011Photos: 78

1st Mare Liberum Bamboo Kayak Frame

Thanks you all for coming out last weekend and over this past week to make our bamboo kayak building workshop (aka Shipwrecked, Shanghai’d, Marooned!) so much awesomeness.  We will post printable plans for the bamboo kayak after our test launch this Saturday at Marina59 in the Rockaways, as our SeaWorthy Summer continues… Come see the Kayaks, stay for the Boatel.  Also, our friends at the Empty Vessel Project will be curating a night of short boat-themed films.  Should be fun!

Here’s a shot of the boat with its skin on, and one of the studio after day 4:

 (image: Tod Seelie)

Our friends Red76 hosted us this Summer as part of their Open Field residency at the Walker Art Center. A couple of pix, and a video by Juana Berrio, below. Thanks Sarah Peters, Juana Berrio, Sara Shaylie, Chloe Nelson of the Walker, and Sam and Gabriel of Red76!

The Floating Academy was launched in Minneapolis’ Lake of the Isles. Video of the first class discussion, a wrap-up of Red76′s investigations into the Commons, Pop-Up Book Academy #20, is here (or watch below).

PBA #20; Floating Academy pt1 from Sam Gould on Vimeo.

at the Tugboat Graveyard

Well we finally got to make a ML + ML field day happen this Summer, following Stephan and Ben’s meeting with Marie and Neutrino Connie Hockaday earlier in the year — this one thanks to Jean and the good folks at Flux Factory and of course the artist Marie Lorenz herself. Thanks to them all, and to Porter, A’yen, and Kendra. More pix from Stephan Von on FB (from the link above) and the um, (WTF?!) Wall Street Journal which I won’t link to, but you can no doubt find yourselves (and which for some reason is weirdly not at all how I remembered the trip…) Correction: here is the WSJ photo blogger’s post.

Stephan: The first half went on the water in the morning while the rest climbed the big tank (as seen in the  slideshow), and the second half came back in the afternoon when the tide came back in. There was plenty of excitement and it was one of the hardest days of work I have had in a while, but totally worth it.

Back on the hood canal: