2011

Bamboo Kayaks with Bureau for Open Culture @ MASS MoCA

During the summer of 2011 we were invited by Bureau for Open Culture’s James Voorhies to MassMoCA to build a boat with museum employees as part of a project initiated by Dylan and Kendra called “Workers Leaving the Museum.”

The resulting exercise provided a backdrop for research into the relationships between museum workers and the work of the artist.

We constructed a number of skin-on-frame kayaks, built on frames made from locally-sourced bamboo and wrapped in discarded outdoor museum banners.

We built similar kayaks, though skinned in canvas, for the exhibition SeaWorthy, organized by EFA, Flux Factory, and Gowanus Studio Space, an exhibition of over 35 works by artists located on the waterways of New York City.

Another ML Kayak emerged as part of an exhibition and series of public programs commissioned by Parsons and organized by The Canary Project – The New School for Design, this research and curatorial workshop pivoted around an intensive interdisciplinary investigation and a voyage down the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn. The mission of the workshop was to create a body of work that meditates on what it means to regard the Gowanus as Nature. Once a tidal inlet of creeks, marshes and meadows, the Gowanus Canal was transformed into a bustling industrial ecosystem that fueled Brooklyn’s growth. This led to severe pollution of the waters and a recent EPA Superfund site designation, mandating a massive cleanup. The workshop was predicated on a belief that visual art can be a form of research and that such research makes valuable contributions to a given discourse.