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Bob Braine
built his first boat to explore the Bronx River in 1995.
Since then, he has ventured along many of New York’s
waterways to view the city from a pre-industrial perspective.
He is particularly interested in the ecology of the
urban edges where industry and nature meet and the residue
of consumption culture accumulates. He examines botanical
and animal life as a metaphor for the power of biology
and growth of mutant nature. In these marginal places
he studies the cultural human activity, topography,
and the pre-Hudsonian history of place. The Harlem Duck
Boat video and still photographs document his trip along
the Harlem River on January 15, 2000. The boat is camouflaged
with trash, making it easy to maneuver “surreptitiously
along the refuse-strewn shorelines of our great metropolis.”
For the Halletts Cove project at Socrates Sculpture
Park, he created a boat from debris to explore the area.
The infrared aerial photograph indicates the wildlife
and cultural activity found in this edge site.
Braine’s expeditions take him to Central and South
America, often in collaboration with other artists.
His work has been widely exhibited in the United States
and Europe. The Harlem River Duckboat was exhibited
at P.S. 1 in Greater New York, 2000. |
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