Taking roots in centuries-old stories of urban water squatters and haphazard water craft builders, Mare Liberum is a collaborative exploration of what it takes to make viable aquatic craft as an alternative to life on land — and as a way to make visible the overlooked and the neglected, in particular the often toxic waterways of our cities.
The collective draws from sources as diverse as ocean-crossing raft assemblages, improvised refugee boats built in Senegal and Cuba, and modern stitch-and-ply construction methods which make complex, classic boat designs approachable by novice builders. Mare Liberum’s boats, broadsheets and workshops have been exhibited by MASS MoCA, The Neuberger Museum, Maker Faire, Psy-Geo-Conflux Festival, Parsons/The New School, Boston Center for the Arts, the Boston Children’s Museum, EFA Project Space, Alexandraplatz, the Antique Boat Museum, and have been written about in Hyperallergic, The Brooklyn Rail, Bad at Sports, The Village Voice, and Vice Magazine, among others.
From 2007 to 2009, the collective built a fleet of Liberum Dories, a design that we based on the historic 15′ Banks Dory but made out of construction detritus and other found materials sourced from around our studio in the Gowanus. In 2010-11 we began working on the Liberum Kayak, constructed entirely of locally-sourced bamboo, zip ties, and recycled museum-grade vinyl signage from MASS MoCA. In 2012, for a project at the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, New York (Thousand Islands), we constructed a boat from craft paper and wood glue, based on research into the historic paper boats of Troy New York. In 2013, we revisited our paper boatbuilding plans and took to the Charles River in preparation for an exhibition at Boston Center for the Arts’ Mills Gallery, curated by Juliana Driever. In 2014, we have embarked on a collaboration with 350.org, called SeaChange 2014. You can find out more about the project on the SeaChange tumblr site: http://seachange2014.tumblr.com (whoah, a tumblr!!)
Since then, we’ve put together a bunch of other collective projects in places like CCVA Boston, Pompidou Center, Paris, and a temporary public art project commissioned by Evergreen Brickworks and Waterfront Toronto in Canada.
Arthur Poisson, Anna Larson, Brie Ruais, Cecily Anderson, Meryl O’Connor, Martina Mrongovius, Connie Hockaday, Marie Lorenz, Adam Katzman, Zaria Forman, Angela Conant, Sierra Pettengil, Emily Sandusky, Duke Riley, Paula Segal, Patrick Kiley, Christin Ripley, James Voorhies, Nate Padavick, Susan Cross, Cassandra Troyan, James Parrot III, Matt Cassity, Juliana Driever, Emmett Smith, Nick Normal, Matt Levy, Meg Keys, Orian McNeil, Richard Kriddle, Michelle Levy, Sally Szwed, Kevin Buckland, Amaranta Herrero, Andrea Rollefson, Andrea Kimmich-Keyser, Coach Ed Kennedy, Tianna Kennedy, Dana Gulley, Riverkeeper, Alex Scrimgeour, Wendell Seitz, North Brooklyn Boat Club, Red Hook Boaters, Gowanus Dredgers, Inwood Canoe Club, Ossining Boat and Canoe Club, The Staats, A’yen Tran, Jeff Stark, George Graham, Greg Mihalko, Jason Viseltear, Josh Weinstein, Haley Hughes, Sam Gould, Jens Rasmussen, Willis Elkins, Rosalyn Ruiz, Patterson Beckwith, Fung Lim, Mark Anderson, Radhika Subramaniam, Edward Morris, Susannah Sayler, Elizabeth Rush, Galen Joseph-Hunter, Tom Rowe, Ellen Driscoll, Tom O’Dowd, Gail Buckland, Susan Rogers, Maximillian Goldfarb, Jesse Karch, Dylan Latimer, Everett Cox, Laurie Husted, Gypsy Guillen Kaiser, Mario Kaiser, Alaina Taylor, Raquel de Anda, Rachel Sturgis, Beka Economopoulos, kt tierney, Azuré and Christian, Mark @ Haven, Enez Paganuzzi, Alexis Bhagat, Stephanie Loveless, Stephanie Rabins, Lindsea Kemp-Wilbur, Elizabeth Knafo, Paul Lloyd Sargent, Jen Kaminski, Artur Jupiter, David Borton, Amanda “Dez” Menendez, Susan Rutman, Bleakley McDowell, Sara McMillan, Brindalyn Webster Chen, Georgia Muenster, Michael Arcega, Rachel Bacon, Gabriela Basterra, Andy Bichlbaum & Jeff Day, Jimbo Blachly & Lytle Shaw, George Boorujy, Matt Bua, The Brooklyn Pirates, Laurie Churchman, Adriane Colburn, Patrick Herron, Beth MacBlane (Mystic River Watershed Association), Maryann Cairns, Catherine D'Ignazio, Laura Perovich, Sara Wylie, Don Blair (Public Laboratory for Open Technology + Science) Maria Belen Power, Roseann Bongiovanni (Chelsea Collaborative), Magdalena Ayed (Neighborhood of Affordable Housing), Max Liboiron, Becky Smith (Clean Water Action), Moody Jandhyala, John Camera (Local informant), Jane Marsching, Andi Sutton (Plotform), Richard Beinecke (“Mystic River Rick”), Jennifer Sigler, Silvia Benedito, Alexander Bender, Ellis Isenberg, Tim Knight, Sue Schaffner, Maya Suess, Renata Guttman (Canadian Center for Architecture), Arnaud Dercelles (Fondation le Corbu), Shirin Adhami, James Voorhies, Daisy Nam, Anna Kovacs, Jesse Collins, Dan Lopez, Fausto Dos Santos (CCVA), Heather Dewey-Hagborg & Thomas Dexter, Meredith Drum & Rachel Stevens, Amze Emmons, Andrew Eutsler, Shane Heinemeier & Alison Ward, Drew Feuer & Eleanor Lovinsky, Jason Gandy, Richard Haley, Crystal Heiden, Constance Hockaday, TJ Hospodar, Haley Hughes, Sarah Julig, Jonathan Kaiser, Adam Katzman, Marie Lorenz, Hans Maharawal & Thomas Robinson, Mary Mattingly, Orien McNeill, Nick Normal, Ciaran O’Dochartaigh, Anne Percoco, Natalia Porter, Duke Riley, Tod Seelie, Jessica Segall, Gina Siepel, Reid Stowe, Swimming Cities, Swoon, A’yen Tran, Emmett Walsh, Ian Warren, Brindalyn Webster, Charles Westfall, Marina 59, Randi Hopkins, Eugene Finney, Jacqueline Shilkoff, Dan Glass, James Trimarco, Martha Schwendener, Marty Lucas, Rachel Stevens, Ricardo Miranda Zuñiga, Michael Gitlin, Lorraine Boissonault, Oksana Mironova, Ray Fusco, Catharine Connell, Ralph Bishop, Gretta Cohn, Natalia Porter, Allison Poole, Elizabeth Weinberg, Anna Boysen, Joe Beaglehole, Jonathan Butt, Stuart Heys, Pauline Pechin, Lacey Tauber, Beatrice Glow, Mary Habstritt, Nadine Bloch, Gabby Brown, Yoni Brook, Kenny Bruno, Shawn Forno, Matt Tyson, Graeme Birchall, Ilya Bernstein, Athena Soules, Jacques, Good Kid Paulie, Turtle MacDermott, Yuko Tonohira, Emilio Oliveira, Elizabeth Press, Julie Platner, Gayathri Iyer, Kari Cwynar, Chloe Catan, Charlene Lau, Daniel Rotsztain, Felix Mills, Shannon Gerard, Maria Hupfield, John Hupfield, Vesna Krstich, Holly Chang,
Julissa Norman, Ang Martinez, Tom Upjohn, Brandon Lathcam, Freddie Ratkovsky, Brian McBay, Carolyn King, Diya Vij, Jane Weninger, Pamila Matharu, Joanne Bowers, Wing-Yee Fung, Julia Girmenia, Natalie Lam, Annie Vandenberg, Shuraine Otto-Olak, Sylvia Plain, Chris Mendoza, Anong and Lux Beam, John Hupfield, Amish Morrell, Parker Kay, Daniel Rotsztain, Elder Catherine Taomesre Tàmmaro, Queen Kukoyi, Nico Taylor, Jay Havens, Helen Mills, John Wilson, Shannon Gerard, Brandon Latcham, Freddie Ratkovsky, Leah Klingbyle, Elizabeth de Coste, Gabriel George, Marcella Moliner and Iris Adrienne Langlois-Smith, Netami Stuart, Jennifer Bonnell, Sonja Vangjeli, Doug Bennet, Helen Mills. Celina Su, Kendra Krueger, Kelly Jazvac, Kirsty Robertson, Akua Banful, Aurash Khawarzad, and quite a few more…
Bow: The front of the boat.
Stern: The rear of the boat
Starboard: The right side of the boat.
Port: The left side of the boat.
Ahead: In front of the boat.
Abaft: Behind the boat.
Abeam: To either side of the boat.
Capsize: To flip the boat.
Bilge: The inside bottom of the boat, generally covered up and containing a small amount of water.
Bail: To get water out of the boat.
Fathom: Six feet.
Heading: the direction the boat is going.
Knot: speed equal to 1.15 miles per hour.
Dory: A small, shallow-draft boat, used for commercial fishing, river and shore navigation, especially in heavy sea or white water river conditions. Also spelled ‘Doree’ or ‘Dorie’ in historical usage. The Liberum Dory is an update on a New England Banks Dory, with an eye to facilitating construction by the casual boat builder with commonly available materials.
Gunwale: The rail around the edge of the boat. Pronounced (and sometimes spelled) “Gunnel.” Attach oarlocks to them.
Planks: The sides, one or many.
Stern Knee: Braces the transom to the bottom board.
Transom: Very rear face of the boat. Mount a motor or rudder.
Transom frames: Boards added to the transom to fasten the planks to. On the Liberum Dory use pallet wood or other solid wood. Probably not ply as it lacks necessary strength.
Bottom Board: Bottom of the Liberum Dory, only applicable to flat bottomed boats.
Frame: Sectional bracing of the boat. Use any solid-wood (pallet wood will do in a pinch – also called a ‘section’)
Station: The Location of the frames. In many cases stations will help you build the boat but not be permanently installed.
Stem: Structural timber at the bow of the boat, planks and bottom board fasten to this.
Chine BLOCKS: Where the Planks and bottom board meet along the length of the boat.
Oarlocks: Pivot point for oars.
Oars: Rowing utensils.
Pine Tar: Often called ‘Stockholm Tar,’ a sticky material derived from carbonized pine sap. Used for preserving wooden boats by coating the interior sole of the boat with the mixture of pine tar, gum turpentine and boiled linseed oil.
Thole-pins: Two generally wooden pins that behave as oarlocks.
Thwart: Seats crossing through the center of the boat.
Jean Barberis is a maker, an artist, and a curator but he rarely makes a distinction between the various aspects of his practice. His work almost exclusively revolves around collective initiatives. A native of Provence, Barberis co-founded Flux Factory and is currently the Artistic Director. Barberis is more engaged as an artist in the curatorial process and the ability to foster collaborations while encouraging the production of ambitious new works. His interests are vast and varied and include urban exploration, shoemaking, boat building, and engaging in exchanges and economies outside of the confines of capitalism.
Ben Cohen is a co-founder of Mare Liberum as well as an industrial designer, amateur boat-builder, sometimes-curator, and former director of The Gowanus Studio Space in Brooklyn, NY.
Dylan Gauthier is a Brooklyn-based artist (writer, curator, educator, boatbuilder, media activist). His works take the form of videos, photographs, soundtracks, publications, environmental research and performances, and are concerned with temporary situations, shared experiences, public space and access to information. He is co-founder of the boatbuilding and printmaking project Mare Liberum (thefreeseas.org), a frequent collaborator with the Gowanus Studio Space, and with the collective Red76, and has shown in museums and galleries including MASS MoCA, the Walker Art Center, Stacion Kosovo, EFA Project Space, Parsons/the New School, Columbus College of Art and Design and the Neuberger Museum at SUNY Purchase. Dylan has an MFA from the Integrated Media Arts program with a focus on creative nonfiction at Hunter College. https://dylangauthier.info/
Sunita Prasad is a New York City based artist. Her projects employ methods of visual translation such as drag, re-enactment, movement, and touch to shift or rupture expectations about how gendered bodies should behave, be represented, or be historicized. Her works have been shown in galleries, festivals, and performance venues internationally, including the Palais de Tokyo in Paris; the Brooklyn Museum, Flux Factory and Momenta Art in New York City; and Homesession in Barcelona. Sunita is originally from Syracuse NY and received a BFA in Film & TV from New York University and an MFA in Photography from the Rhode Island School of Design. Sunita’s collaborations include projects with Laryssa Husiak, Mare Liberum, the Ecocide Project, Red Channels, Some Feminists in Your Neighborhood, Frédéric Durieu, Jean Barberis, and Rabid Hands.
Kendra Sullivan is a writer, publisher, artist, and boat-maker living in Brooklyn. She works at the Center for the Humanities at the CUNY Graduate Center, running the Mellon Seminar in Public Engagement and Collaborative Research; publishing Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics Archive Initiative; and organizing The Annual CUNY Chapbook Festival, among myriad other public programs and scholarly initiatives. Her writing has recently appeared in BOMB, F.R. DAVID, and Martha Rosler’s Gar(b)age Sale Standard, and her artwork has been exhibited at the Boston Center for the Arts, MassMoCA, and The Carpenter Center for Visual Arts at Harvard University (forthcoming). Her curatorial projects include: Sea Worthy (2011), Ed Sanders: Seeking the Glyph (2015), and Accompaniment (2015), for which she was recipient of an award from Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in Fine Arts. She has performed her own works at the Banff Centre, Dexter Sinister, and tenletters, Glasgow; and as part of Robert Ashley’s The Trail of Anne Opie Wehrer at the Whitney Biennial in 2014. She is a member of the art and boat-building collective Mare Liberum and co-founder of the Sunview Luncheonette, a community space for art and politics run out of a stopped-in-time diner in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
Stephan von Muehlen is Brooklyn-based designer, builder, and artist whose work attempts to combine sustainable practice with craft and technology. As a designer and builder, he has worked on projects ranging from aerospace robotics and consumer electronics to cardboard log cabins and interactive public art kiosks. In his artistic practice, Stephan brings his skills as a designer and fabricator to his collaborations with other artists. The results have included large-scale sculptural work and installations, as well as kinetic paintings and boats. His work has been shown at The Gowanus Studio Space, EFA Project Space, and The Old School.
Emiritus Members
Arthur Poisson foreign agent / poisson et artiste. Based in France.
166 7th Street // Gowanus Studio Space
Brooklyn, New York 11215