Closing party, Tuesday June 23

As all good things must come to an end, we are having our CLOSING PARTY tomorrow night, Tuesday June 23rd, 8-9:30 pm. Wine and snacks will be on hand. Come and enjoy a beautiful night on the Gowanus Canal, and help send Gowanus HAVEN off into the sunset!

The best viewing time is at dusk, 8:45-9:00 pm.

Take the F-train to Carroll street, and walk down 2nd street two blocks to the canal.

thanks to everyone who has visited so far, and thanks to the Gowanus Dredgers and to Ken for being so supportive!

Schedule changes due to rain

It looks like we will be rained out tonight, Saturday June 20, unfortunately.

However, we will plan to show the project Sunday June 21, 8-9:30 pm,

and have our closing party Tuesday June 23, 8-9:30 pm with wine and snacks.

if you have any questions, call me at: 718 909 0808

thanks

Philip

Photos from the opening of HAVEN

Here are some photos from the opening night of HAVEN on Wednesday June 17. Katja and I were also on hand last night (Thursday June 18th) in spite of the drizzle to show the project.

We will definitely be there tonight, Friday June 19th, showing HAVEN. We will be at the canal from 5 pm-9:30pm. Best viewing time is 8:30-9pm. We hope to see you there.

Exhibition schedule for Gowanus Haven

We will be exhibiting the project every evening from now Thurday June 18 2009 until Tuesday June 23, 8pm-9:30 pm, so even if you missed the opening, you can still see the project! If it is raining, we won't be able to show it, unfortunately.

I will be posting pictures to the blog, from the opening of the exhibition in the next day, so check back soon.

Gowanus Haven opens tonight!, June 17, 2009

Last night we stayed at the canal after dark again, to work out the details of how to coordinate the video elements on the floating raft. You can see the results in the picture here. Come by and see us tonight on the canal, 7-10 pm at the end of 2nd Street near Bond Street.

Here are details about the exhibition:

GOWANUS HAVEN
Date:		Wednesday June 17, 2009
Time:		7:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Notes:		Gowanus HAVEN Opening Wednesday June 17, 7-10pm Local artist Philip Simmons has teamed up with 2 artists from Denmark, Hartmut Stockter and Katja Bjorn Jakobsen, to create a collaborative sculpture and video installation floating on the Gowanus canal in Brooklyn. They have constructed a raft with a large floating, water-powered machine that speaks to the life in and along the Gowanus Canal, a storied and reviled waterway currently enjoying a resurgence. The project captures the lush, libertine decay of the canal in its current state, and looks to the future of a cleaned-up, hopefully public, recreational space. HAVEN received financial support from the Danish Art Fund, and is hosted by the Gowanus Dredgers canoe club. The project is located at the end of 2nd street on the Gowanus Canal, at the Gowanus Dredgers boat landing. Take the F train to Carroll Street station, then walk 2 blocks downhill on 2nd Street to the canal. Exhibition hours are: Opening reception: Wednesday 7-10pm Exhibition hours: Thursday June 18-Tuesday June 23, 7:30-9:30 pm, or by appointment More information: simmonsphilip@gmail.com

We've been working steadily, rain or shine, and the cog wheels for the water powered "clock" have been mounted on the raft. Hopefully this precision mechanism won't be too adversely affected by the rain (plywood tends to warp in weather like this.) Things are looking good for our opening on Wednesday (June 17th, 7-10 pm on the Gowanus canal at 2nd street), though. Should be a beautiful evening.

Katja and I spent time in the Brooklyn Public Library's Brooklyn Collection yesterday researching more historic photos and information about the Gowanus canal, that will hopefully make it into the video component of the project. We're still testing the best way to project onto the raft and water at the canal.

The three of us have also made headway on the design and ideas for our upcoming project in Køge, Denmark, which we will create as part of a larger exhibition this fall.

People I have talked with the project have rightly asked what it means in a larger sense...I think each of the three of us has an individual perspective on this, but for me (Philip) the collaborative process has been where a lot of the creativity has happened. We conceived of the Haven project as a multi-part endeavor, happening in different parts of the world over time, where we, the artists, and others who want to spend time with us, can gather to celebrate creative activity, and a sense of freedom from the normal constraints of everyday life. For us, waterfront areas, harbors (and canals) are places where intercultural exchange, commerce, and activities outside the norm have always happened. Our quirky effort on the Gowanus canal is created in this spirit. It is a haven for us as artists, and for anyone who wants to hang out with us there. It has been great that neighborhood kids (some of whom have never seen anything like it), adult neighbors, gowanus dredgers and others have stopped by for repeated visits over the past week. 

more pictures from the building process

imitating bird calls

help from the kids

Gowanus water with dead squirrel

the water wheel after a day's work in the pouring rain

one of the first dredgers returns from a 

coast-to-coast motorcycle ride and dips

his foot in the water of the canal

cog-wheel-workshop

June 6, 2009

We combined the 2 rafts today, into one structure, mounted the water wheel, added bracing, and got sunburned.

Towing supplies on the raft

Philip:
Today, the three of us used the newly made raft to get supplies via the gowanus canal. We used our raft as a barge, towing it with a Dredger canoe to the Lowes Hardware store which is located down the canal from the Dredger boat house. The whole process was amazingly easy and convenient. The raft proved very stable, and capable of carrying a lot of weight without any problem. Saved us on truck rental as well.

We continued on today, building a second raft, which we will probably use to as the foundation for our Gowanus Water Wheel, and Water Clock. We started building the water wheel today as well. Spirits are good! The collaborators are collaborating. check out the videos and pictures attached from today.

Here is some background on the ideas behind Gowanus HAVEN:

BACKGROUND
Harbor as Haven
Harbors have traditionally been places where one culture encounters many others. Places of trade and interaction. Places where the traditional rules, and prevailing cultural attitudes don't always apply. In this sense, harbors have been havens for free thinking, and license. Traders, travelers, seamen, criminals, prostitutes, and others who don't quite fit in. This project will capture the dynamics of change and cultural collision in water front areas, in New York (Brooklyn), and Koege (near Copenhagen.)

Shifting economies and social forces have seen harbor and waterfront areas turn into rundown and undesirable places. Artists and others seeking creative living and affordable space filled the gap left by exiting industry. Now, what were formerly unwanted spaces have become desirable to mainstream and well-off people. Once again, social and economic forces are causing change to waterfront areas.

Gowanus Haven

The Gowanus canal in Brooklyn, NY, is a famously polluted industrial waterway running through the heart of the borough out to the New York harbor. For over 100 years, the Gowanus has been the receptacle for many forms of toxic industrial waste and domestic trash and sewage. The filthy waters of the canal were virtually lifeless until recent years. Nothing could survive in the oily black water. The decline of heavy industry in Brooklyn, as well as grassroots cleanup efforts have brought some improvements, however, locals are still afraid of coming into contact with the water. You wouldn't even want to dip your hand into the canal, and the thought of accidentally falling in makes people shudder with disgust.

Gowanus Haven will re-imagine that interaction with sculpture, video and sound installations on and around the banks of the canal, near the Gowanus Dredger boat launch site at the end of 2nd street on the Gowanus Canal. The Gowanus Dredgers have kindly offered us the use of the boat house and access to the waterfront there for our project. The work will be displayed during the daytime, and after dark. NIght time is when dreaming happens, and the artists will take advantage of the cloak of darkness in order to present their unique vision of what is possible on the Gowanus. Katja Jakobsen, Philip Simmons, and Hartmut Stockter will create works that project a possible future for the canal, in which children play in the water, plants and animals thrive in the canal and on its banks, and business and industry conform to safe, environmentally green standards of operation.

Jakobsen and Stockter will travel to Brooklyn, and live and work together with Simmons for 2 weeks to create and install the artwork. A weekend-long exhibition will be the result.

Gowanus Haven, June 3, 2009

Gowanus Haven is a collaborative project of the artists

Katja Bjørn Jakobsen, Philip Simmons, and Hartmut Stockter.

The artists will create and exhibit a project during the first

3 weeks of June 2009. The planned opening for the exhibition

is June 17, starting at around 7 pm, at the gowanus canal on 2nd

street in Brooklyn. Each of the artists will add progress reports

and commentary to this blog throughout the project.