Where High Gets Low.
Spent Sunday at dawn paddling around Randall’s Island with artist Marie Lorenz, as part of her long-running project, The Tide and Current Taxi. It was all kinds of awesome. My WNYC colleague Jennifer Hsu made the most wonderful video of the whole experience (that’s her in action, above). Check out our report over at WNYC Culture.
Still 22, by Marie Lorenz. Part of the exhibit Marie Lorenz/SHIPWRECKS at Jack Hanley Gallery in NYC, artist reception on Friday, Jan. 8th at 6 p.m. Do not miss this show. (Image courtesy of Marie Lorenz.)
Ready to get the party started: Artist Marie Lorenz Holds Fast at the American Academy in Rome. (Photos by San Suzie.)
Just after Thanksgiving, we were fortunate to attend the first international celebration of Nautical Waste, the smelliest art concept party — or any party, for that matter — we’ve ever been to. There was a sculpture made of rotting mussels and other sea detritus. (Pungent!) And the whole party ended with a re-enactment of the Roman sea victory at the Battle of Mylae…in a fountain.
Now in its sixth year, Nautical Waste is an annual seafaring celebration that takes place on the Saturday night after Thanksgiving. Started in Brooklyn by artists Marie Lorenz, the creator of the New York Tide and Current Taxi, Matt Lorenz and Melissa Brown, the event is part performance, part exhibit, and a great excuse to trawl your local coastline for stinky crap — then spend an evening building stuff with it while drinking grog, quoting Melville and wearing a pirate’s hat. This year the flotsam and jetsam washed up in three separate venues: Brooklyn, Banff, and the American Academy in Rome, where Lorenz is a fellow in the visual arts.
Stay tuned for more waterlogged adventures, because next spring, we will accompany Lorenz down the Tiber in a homemade boat, hopefully after getting nautically wasted.
Click on images to supersize. More after the jump.