Jeff Williams is an artist who I met at the American Academy in Rome last year.
While most everyone at the Academy was studying things like baroque architecture and classical sculpture, Jeff made art in places like this cistern under the Academy; derelict, and abandoned structures forgotten by time.
Back in Brooklyn this year, Jeff bacame interested in the warehouses along Morgan Ave. “You know what is on the other side of those buildings,” I said,
“The Newtown Creek; the greatest non-site in Brooklyn!”
Jeff asked if we could go there in my boat.
I told him that there were plenty of abandoned places that he could make art about on the Newtown Creek,
but when we got out there, I started to wonder if I was wrong.
“Are most of the abandoned things upstream?” asked Jeff.
There were plenty of run-down buildings,
but every place along the river looked like it was being used for something.
Industry was packed along the banks.
The machinery seemed to be running itself, without the help of humans.
A huge recylcing center,
was attended only by birds circling slowly above the trash.
We floated by the the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant,
within sight of Midtown.
“Here we go.” I said, “Here is an abandoned bridge, totally forgotten by time…”
But while we paddled under the bridge,
a gleaming silver LIRR train roared past above our heads.
“I think this is all being used for something.” I said.
The wind was beginning to pick up,
so we stuck close to the shore and worked our way back upriver.
I took some pictures of the Kosciusko Bridge,
as the wind blew us back underneath.
The only thing that really looked abandoned on our whole trip was something that we saw right when we put the boat in the water;
some kind of silo or loading station on the waters edge, right next to the Kosciusko.
We tied the boat to a tree,
climbed up the bank,
and walked into the yard.
“This place has everything!” said Jeff,
inverted ziggurat towers
a house made out of a tank
As we entered the main structure,
I was reminded of the movie ‘Aliens’,
when they first realize that the architecture of the massive space ship they have entered is really the belly of a monster.
Everything was covered with a thick layer of cement.
Jeff said he loved the space. He would like to do a project here; if not in the silo then maybe just in reference to it.
There was one place that we had not explored;
a ladder that went all the way to the roof.
“Maybe we can do that on another day.” We thought.
We paddled back across to Meeker street,
and tucked the boat back in my studio.
A few days later we came back to the spot where we launched and noticed a new fence and security camera.
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