25TH ANNUAL BWAC OUTDOOR SCULPTURE SHOW

Sponsored By The Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition (BWAC), The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, and the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy.

After twenty-five years, BWAC’s outdoor sculpture show is STILL FLYING. On Saturday, June 30th, works by twenty-eight artists will go on display in Empire Fulton-Ferry State Park and Brooklyn Bridge Park. Flanked by the massive piers of the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges on either side, and with an unobstructed view of downtown Manhattan across the East River, the two parks provide a dramatic setting in which visitors can engage with the artists’ work to contemplate notions of uplift and flight.

Several sculptors will present physical representations of flight. Tammy Bickel’s welded steel and stain glass Dragonfly appears poised ready to lift off. While Doug Makemson’s oversize, scrap metal bird, with its cocked head, open-mouth, and asymmetrical stance, remains content with a belly full of fish. Alex Neroulias has constructed a six-foot long paper airplane out of plywood, the nose crumpled to suggest a moment of impact. Evocative of the playfulness and simplicity of adolescence, the proximity of the lower Manhattan skyline invests the piece with a sense of lost innocence.

Other artists address the broader implications of flight. Kathy Bruce’s The Metaphysical Menina, a female figure looking upward at the heavens, echoes the experience of visitors to the park, their gazes inevitably drawn to the sky by the awe-inspiring architecture. Stuart Nicholson’s Floating Buddha, set adrift on the East River, embodies the weightlessness and freedom associated with flight, both physical and psychological. Cordy Ryman created a 40 foot long installation along the fence between the parks. This piece consists of one hundred painted 2”x4”planks. Each board is painted with a different combination of green and yellow. The image produced is something someone might see looking down on acres of agriculture as seen from an airplane. Even the commuters on the “B” train passing over the Manhattan Bridge will have a chance to appreciate this piece. Finally, Richard Watts’s Ark, a 1500 pound whaleboat salvaged from the Great Lakes in Canada, deals with flight as the desire to escape. Perched alongside the shoreline, this imposing structure raises questions; is this art or artifact?

This long-running show, created and curated by artists, continues to represent an incredible cross section of sculptors from all corners of the world. Like the hundreds of members of BWAC, the artists in this show are simply committed to making art a part of everyday life and the people of New York City are the fortunate beneficiaries of their creative energy.

Curated by Ursula Clark and Tyrome Tripoli

Music by Little Red Hen Music Stage: (under the tall cottonwood tree)

Opening ceremony kicks off at noon – Hogzilla Sisters 1pm – Jesse Lenat 2pm Devlish Merrie 3pm Will Scott 4pm Jan Bell and the Cheap Dates

After Party at 68 Jay st Bar (corner of Jay and Water)

6pm Gloria Williams & Empee A.K.A. Kenipchen Fit 7pm Stuart Nicholson (Dali’s Screwdriver) 7:30pm Hilary Hawk 8pm Will Scott Band