In June, the Tide and Current Taxi participated in the Works on Water exhibition at 3DL, organized by Emily Blumenfeld, Clarinda Mac Low, Eve Mosher, Nancy Nowacek, Katie Pearl and Sarah Cameron Sunde.
IÂ contributed a live stream video of every trip,
so if you walked into the gallery on June 24th, you would have seen Dan Nadel and Elisa Leshowitz, and I paddling through the Gowanus Canal.
You would have been transported across a landscape of leaf debris, plastic bits, and things floating out of the sewer.
It’s always strange to travel by water in the city, like time away from time, forgotten and parallel. Now it was additionally strange, to think that people might be watching on TV a few miles away.
“This is where I would hide a dead body, if I had to.” said Dan Nadel. “Well now you know where to find me if I ever go missing.” said Elisa.
I wondered what our conversation sounded like online. Maybe it was like listening to the radio in traffic, when you tune into a talk show just after the joke,
Only here the was no punchline, just the shoreline scrolling past, thing after thing.
Back at the gallery, a panel discussion was underway. “Can using urban waterways empower people?”
A few hours later, I tried to make that very case to a group of friends in Brooklyn,
but no one seemed interested in climbing back into the Gowanus canal to camp overnight.
Around midnight, Carla Edwards agreed to the adventure.
We brought sleeping bags, Italian cookies, and a few cans of beer.
Sounds from the highway and surrounding industry carried out across perfectly still water.
As far as we could see in any direction, the city was perfectly still,
except of course for the rats.
“That is one of the places I thought we could camp.” I confessed.
“Let’s just try and stay up all night,” we decided.
With our only objective to actually spend as much time as possible, we moved slowly, letting our eyes rest on every detail,
but around dawn we had another idea,
sunrise at Fort Tilden.
I wanted something good for the live-stream on it’s last day, but my equipment stopped working.
Without the pressure of broadcasting the live-stream,
I looked out and just saw…
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