“In coordination with the closing of ‘Pankabestia: Punk Beasts of the swimming Cities of Serenisssima,’ which is a retrospective exhibition about the crew-members and the individual artists that supported Swoon’s ‘Swimming Cities’ projects, Artist Spy Emerson tells us about her own personal experience as a crew member of the “Swimming Cities of the Switchback Sea” and of the ‘Swimming Cities of Serenissima.’”
Spy Emerson, in her own words,
Juxtapoz Magazine. Read more here.
"…The most moving moment
I had at the Biennale, however, came in the last minutes of
my last day at the show. Just before closing time, as
guards herded stragglers toward the entrance from the far
end of the Arsenal where I was, three marvelous-looking
vessels cobbled together from urban detritus motored past
Mike Boucher’s wonderful sunken suburban house, and
into the small lagoon. A band played a haunting song, a
woman sang, a girl swung on a swing. The boats are the work
of the artist Swoon. I’m told that Swoon wasn’t
even invited to the show. She and her gypsy friends simply
entered of their own accord and did what they wanted to do.
Like the best work here, Swoon’s work doesn’t
come out of academic critique; it comes from necessity and
vision. These are the perfect tools for making things as
old as time new again -- including an art world turned
dangerously into itself."
Jerry Saltz, New York
Magazine. Read more here.
"Barging In to Venice: The
Brooklyn artist Swoon and her merry band of anarchists from
deepest Bushwick are invading the Venice Biennale this
week—on boats built from garbage. New York City
garbage."
Vanessa Grigoriadis, New York Magazine. Read more here.
"A fleet of intricate, handcrafted vessels that functions
as a stage, a sculpture exhibition and a social experiment,
Swoon's ‘Swimming Cities’ project is headed to
one of the places that originally inspired it: Venice. The
street artist and her 30-member crew will dock off of
Certosa Island during the Venice Biennale to give a series
of performances, collectively titled 'The Clutchess of
Cuckoo,' which will feature music, shadow puppetry, and
visual storytelling."
Jacquelyn Lewis, Art In
America. Read more here.