Dardest Things That Sculptors Do

[Merlion]

One example of the darndest things that sculptors do.

I'm afraid I don't understand what he says in the last paragraph below.

Odd-looking `submarine‘ spotted near QM2 (http://www.meadowfreepress.com/ViewArticle.aspx?id=142385&source=2)

Aug 3, 2007 (AP) NEW YORK - An artist manning a replica Revolutionary War submersible caused a scare Friday after police found the strange-looking vessel foundering in a security zone near the docked Queen Mary 2, authorities said.

"It was a strange sight," Coast Guard Petty Officer Angelia Rorison said.

The makeshift sub "is the creative craft of three adventuresome individuals," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said in a news release. "It does not pose any terrorist threat. ... We can best summarize today‘s incident as marine mischief."

The brown, egg-shaped vessel was a replica of a submarine used during the American Revolution, Rorison said. The inflatable boat was towing the submarine, authorities said.

The Coast Guard issued two citations to Riley, 35, of New York — one for having an unsafe vessel, the other for violating a security zone. The sub came within 200 feet of the bow of the Queen Mary 2, Rorison said.

Riley is a sculptor and performance artist whose work "addresses the prospect of residual but forgotten unclaimed frontiers on the edge and inside overdeveloped urban areas, and their unsuspected autonomy," according to his Web site......

[Merlion]

Here are more information and comments about this artist and his bizarre work and performance.

New Trend: Building Your Own Turtle Submarine! (http://gothamist.com/2007/08/04/new_trend_build.php)

Aug 4, 2007, Yesterday, the odd news about the NYPD's arrest of three men involved with an egg-shaped submarine near the Queen Mary 2, off the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, revealed that a Brooklyn artist was behind the whole benign operation. ...

The NY Times describes Riley's intentions:

Mr. Riley’s plan was also military, in a sense — though mostly metaphorical, given that he is an artist. He wanted to float north in the Buttermilk Channel to stage an incursion against the Queen Mary 2, which had just docked in Red Hook, the mission objective mostly just to get close enough to the ship to videotape himself against its immensity for a coming gallery show.

The submarine was based on a 1775 design called the Turtle. According to Wikipedia, it "was designed as a naval weapon, and it was meant to drill into a ship's hull and plant a keg of powder, which would be detonated by a time fuse." ....

The version Riley built was made from "cheap plywood, coated with fiberglass and topped off with portholes and a hatch bought from a marine salvage company" (Times) and had two tons of lead and rock for ballast. The Times' Randy Kennedy wrote after Riley, Jesse Bushnell and Mike Cushing had made sure it would float on Thursday night, the egg, named the Acorn, "resembled something out of Jules Verne by way of Huck Finn, manned by cast members from 'Jackass.'"

Here from NYT (http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/08/03/arts/20070803_SUB_SLIDESHOW_index.html) is a slideshow of many good pictures. I show one below.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/08/03/arts/070804.slide6.jpg

[Tlouis]

Those last 2 lines are just gobbledegook pretending to be thoughtful and insightful commentary. Just the sort of high-brow, cerebral bullshit you read in Art in America magazine. Don't tire your brain trying to decipher it. I doubt if even the person who wrote it knows what it means.

Lou

[Merlion]

Here is another unusual example. It is a 4-min video. Hope you enjoy it.

Japanese Crawling Robot (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iax04B5al9Y)

P.S. Did I spell the word wrong in the thread title?

[cooljamesx1]

"marine mischief" haha

maybe there is something bigger here. maybe they understand that an artists duty is to disrupt society. haha funny though.

[Tlouis]

Yes, Merlion

It's spelled darNdest. :)

[evaldart]

They got what they wanted. Pictures in the paper, news etc. It will all lead to a gallery show and a day in the sun. And if they have anything real to offer us, we'll hear from them again.
I, personally, am taking the looooooong route to recognition - more concerned with actual sculpture. I know that a "day in the sun" actually lasts a day.

[grommet]

My take on the last paragraph is:
"What can we get away with doing because no one said we couldn't? ... right under their noses."

[jOe~]

In my next life I'll come back as a performance artist. Now that I'm thinking about it, it sounds like way more fun than making stuff that is just hung on walls or is bolted to the floor(liability). I could be real wacky in the funnest way I could imagine. I could give David Letterman something to blush and stammer about. I could be rich. Yaaaaah, thats the ticket. Beats the looooong route.

[kellimaier]

I think the last part is saying he likes to show an over developed urban or suburban area it's roots/history through artistic means like this performance art tactic?