We've done a retrograde Twain and headed Out East to Albany/Troy, NY. Right now we're lying on the banks of the mighty Hudson River with the gentle slosh of the water in our ears, staring up at the stars through the leafy night. We're getting ready for The Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea, a large scale mobile art installation project that'll float down the Hudson, round the tip of Manhatten.
But first, a little history: It began three years ago as the The Miss Rockaway Armada, a group of New York City area artists and assorted others who decided to travel down the Mississippi on very handmade rafts bedecked and festooned with art... equal parts continuous happening, Vaudeville happenstance, and Mark Twain gumption. The Mississippi has long been the Country's psychic dividing line between the past and the promise of the future. The highfalutin idea was to, "solicit dialogue around subversive and constructive ways of living." The impetus was to explore America outside of the bohemian boundaries of the NYC hipster arts milieu by taking it to middle America. The neat thing was that it was intended to be a two-way street. From all reports, Middle America gave as good as it got. Boundaries were blurred; social interactions occurred that would not have otherwise. Bohemia infected the broad banks of the Mississippi and the communities along the way infected Bohemia right back.
This year, the project is called the The Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea. In August of 2008, the Hudson River is the canvas, from Albany-Troy all the way down to Brooklyn. Seven crafts will soon float down the river the Mahican confederacy called Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk. The boats will be powered by alternate energy systems, which is where K.S.W. comes in. We spent the Spring and early Summer hard at work restoring an old paddle-wheel steamboat. K.S.W.'s steamboat (she arrived by truck) will support an enormous sculptural array installed by an artist named Swoon, the larger project's creative leader.
Where (maps too) we'll be and when should be posted on the Swimming Cities site, look under "Performances."
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