Yesterday we were delighted to find out that MASS MoCA Fest artists Josh Ritter and Ben Kweller were visiting the museum. My intern MacKenzie and I met them in the parking lot and offered to show them around the spaces. The singers were incredibly nice and quickly agreed to let us photo log their adventures through MASS MoCA.

We started with a photo op at the big yellow arrow pointing from the parking lot.

Then Josh and Ben took a few moments to bask in the shade of the upside down trees.

Deep in conversation about their musical processes we invited them to lounge in the rubber tubing chairs in the To Cribbage building built by current Kidspace artist Matt Bua.

Worried that they wouldn’t have enough time to see everything in the galleries if we let them stay, we encouraged Josh and Ben to actually go inside the museum but first we had another photo op with our yellow signage.

Wondering what happened next? Stay tuned for Josh and Ben getting their tickets and an unfortunate brush with security…

In the mean time help us spread the word about MASS MoCA Fest happening on August 15.  Post our e-flier (below with HTML code) on your favorite social networking sites by August 13 and we’ll enter you into a drawing for FREE tickets! Just send me a link  to every site you post the flier on at bbishop@massmoca.org (subject line: MASS MoCA Fest E-Flier). You can also e-mail the flier to your friends, just make sure to CC me on the e-mail.

500 x 710 E-flier

Copy and paste this HTML Code:

<a href="http://www.massmoca.org/event_details.php?id=480">
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Thanks for you help!

Cheers,

Brittany

MASS MoCA Director Joe Thompson also spent some time on the Hudson River with Simon Starling.  Here he details his role in the creation of the second phase of Strip Canoe.

My job was logistics support on Friday, Day 2, from Hudson to Kingston: actually, my job was to provide lunch.  I had the brilliant idea of using a high tech rotomolded sit-on-top 17′ Hobie cat, which boasts outriggers and a 17′ self-furling mainsail and would allow me to run 2009 circles around those canoeists, caught up in 1909.

But it didn’t work out that way.

No wind.  Not a breath.  The Hudson was like glass for most of the 25-mile trip.  Which meant I worked my tail off trying to keep up with the old technology, and even then failed.  Simon and Dante were polite and kept their boats in eyesight, or maybe this was  because I had the food.

We had a great time: hawks, eagles, herons, and lots of fish hitting at the surface.  The bridges from below are magnificent: Rip Van Winkle, in particular, is a structural marvel.  We noticed that 9/11 angst has infiltrated the river in the form of signage threatening 5 years imprisonment or a $50,000 fine for loitering under the bridges.  Strangely, the closer you get to NYC, the cleaner the river seemed.

This was the only part of the trip that I participated in, but there was one lesson I’ll never forget: on the river that flows both ways, it’s all about the tide.  With the draining tide, we made our first 22 miles in about 4.5 hours, and were still pretty fresh.  We lost the ebbing tide during lunch, however, and the horrible flooding tide slowed our rate to 2 miles over the next 2 hours, and we weren’t loafing.  I bailed at that point, on the north side of Kingston, and the canoeists carried on for another mile or two to complete the Hudson-Kingston reach.

Dante Birch, our production manager for visual arts spent the last week travelling down the Hudson River in a canoe with Simon Starling.  No stranger to canoeing, Dante has been on serious backwoods trips where they drop you by helicopter in Canadian wilderness but he didn’t expect that experiences gained in northern waters would ever come to bear on his currrent position in a contemporary art museum.  He was mistaken.

Little did I know…… I thought it was going to be a show in Building 5: fabrication of two monumental sculptures — behemoth upscale versions of stereoscopic images (from 4.5inches to 25 feet) — organization of borrowed works from abroad. There were the models, international travel, electron microscopes; Simon’s wife was having a baby in the midst of everything. General fare at MASS MoCA for a show in the largest gallery in North America, I guess. But then there were murmurings of a canoe trip……..elusive African animals…… a natural history museum in NYC……?

It was a great concept, Simon’s work Strip Canoe is a metaphysical manifestation of the okapi and it wanted to go to the natural history museum in New York City. This was the home base of Herbert Lang, the individual who photographed the okapi in Africa. Ah a trend, photography, journey, the spirit of discovery and curiosity….. It was starting to become clearer….. Simon is a genius.

But a canoe trip from MASS MoCA to New York City, Really?

As plans progressed it quickly became evident that this was going to be a happening. The project unfolded and soon the notion of the process being integral to Simon’s work revealed itself. Even our director, Joe Thompson joined in sailing a Hobie along with us. I know the guy is fearless but when he decided on a game of chicken with an oncoming barge — well, the image says it all!

The history and the passage through time on the Hudson is amazing. Traveling on the water gave new relevance and understanding. There was a sense of adventure at every turn and paddling all the way through it proved humbling.

As we moved forward, the river grew and so did my appreciation for Simon and what he was trying to achieve. It wasn’t just about the product, it was about the process as well.

Amazing vistas opened before us and the river seemed to have no end.

We moved under the GW Bridge and the visa of the Manhattan sky line opened before us. We finally had our goal in site. And, all that was left was the portage through the Upper West Side.

What a hoot, sore, tired we paddled on. And then it hit me I’ve been to a lot of museums and many of them chronicle the history of art but here at MASS MoCA we have the opportunity to make it. I think that’s why I love this place!

In addition to taking video clips of the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival gallery recitals, we’ve been diligently taking photos as well! Below are a few of our favorites, but you can see all the photos on our Bang on a Can Flickr Group.

Can’t get enough Bang? Don’t fret, you have a few more chances to see the faculty and fellows perform before they leave North Adams. See them tomorrow from 7:30 to 8:30 at DownStreet Art in North Adams, there are three more days of gallery recitals, and if you really want to rock your socks off join us for the Bang on a Can Marathon on Saturday, August 1,  for six hours of music!

Cheers,

Brittany

We just posted a half dozen videos of the Bang on a Can recitals on youtube and will get more up soon.  The recitals have been incredible — raucous and exciting and hushed and transcendent and everything in between. There are just four more days left to enjoy music in the galleries every day at 1:30 and 4:30.  Please stop by!

The canoe portage across Manhattan reported in today’s NY Times is part of Simon Starling’s installation at MASS MoCA.

Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times

Observant North Adams denizens with an eye attuned to billboards will have noticed a similar shot of two men portaging a canoe, albeit with a very different backdrop, on a billboard at the corner of River and Marshall Streets earlier this year.

Photo by Arthur Evans

And MASS MoCA visitors have seen this canoe installed in the back gallery of Building 5, a sort of walk-in diorama.

Photo by Arthur Evans

The canoe will be back in the gallery soon along with a video of photographs of Simon’s journey down the Hoosic River to the Hudson and ultimately to the American Museum of Natural History.