Swoon docks in NY

Swoon's Armada has landed.

In 2006, Swoon launched a two-summer project with a group of fellow artists called “Miss Rockaway Armada,” in which they created three connected rafts from salvaged urban materials like wood and foam blocks, added some recycled car engines, and floated 800 miles down the Mississippi River, stopping along the way to give art workshops.

Inspired by that experience, Swoon recently launched another waterborne project, “Swimming Cities of the Switchback Sea.” On August 15, a fleet of seven handcrafted boats — each a “floating sculpture” designed by Swoon from repurposed materials — set sail from Troy, New York, with Long Island City, Queens, as a destination. The traveling community of more than 40 artists stopped in eight cities along the Hudson River to perform music and a play about the imagined origins of the “Swimming Cities” written by the multidisciplinary artist Lisa D’Amour.

Part seafaring shanty town, part performance art project, and part floating sculpture display, “Swimming Cities” concluded its journey on September 2. From September 7 through October 18 it will dock at Deitch Studios in Long Island City for an exhibition that includes the boats, some new portraits by Swoon, sea imagery based on the river projects, and three live performances (September 11–13).

Read more about it here and here. And see great photos of it here.