A Friday Night Walk at the DUMBO Arts Festival 2011

The DUMBO Arts Festival -- one of our favorite events in Brooklyn -- opened last night with exhibitions, projections and outdoor projects all over DUMBO. (Studios don't open till Saturday.) We took a walk in the rain to see what was happening and ran across this great piece painted on a wall on Water Street. Here are a few other interesting things we saw:

A video installation -- "Oil and Water" -- by Eric Ayotte and Richard Oliver Wilson is set up inside the Tobacco Warehouse. It is comprised of an MP4, a projector, a giant bubble making machine and soap.

Root Boots by Michelle Mayer at 81 Front Street. (Note the boots, center.) If the wearer attempts to move, sensors in the soles of the boots trigger sounds of twisting and cracking wood. If they stay still and "planted," a sub-bass vibration is felt under their feet, signaling their connection.

This was popular: People texted love notes which were projected on the north wall of the Empire Stores. Called Sweet Stream Love's River, the work is by Carl Skelton and Luke DuBois.

81 Front Street

The Friday night events offered a tantalizing glimpse of the fascinating things to come. Here are a few exhibits coming up Saturday and Sunday that might interest you:

Foop: In "Foop," the  lobby of 55 Washington Street becomes the site for a possible science fiction plot. Playing off the motif of the elevator door as a porthole to other realms, the installation proposes that this office elevator could take you further than the fourth floor.

"Kafkaesque Hammock," a collection of hanging hammocks, interconnected by a pulley system. This piece involves the audience’s participation since they become each other’s counterweight while inside the hanging hammocks.

"Swarm": A series of paintings made with propolis, a resin, designed and fabricated by honeybees.

"Video DUMBO": a festival for contemporary video art.

The Sculptors Guild exhibition at 55 Washington.

"Coppercussion/Papercussion" by sound artist Nick Yulman and printmaker Hope Dector, who use the materials of printmaking, electronics and sound to create a network of automated musical devices.

The Center for Photography at Woodstock's auction preview of contemporary and classic photographs.

"Trailer Park": A self-contained portable eco-system and public park housed inside a reclaimed portable travel trailer.

At "Barter Town" participants are invited to bring their ideas, services, songs, stories, unwanted goods, canned goods, handmade art, appliances and anything they think may hold value and haggle for something that they want.

The "Waterbombs!" show.

The "Asphalt Orchestra" show.

The Sculptors Guild will be hosting a molten iron demonstration where they will cast forty souvenir medallions before the eyes of festival goers.

Bubby's Pie Social!

On Saturday the festival runs noon to 8 p.m., and on Sunday noon to 6 p.m. Outdoor projections run from 6 p.m. to midnight.

- DUMBO Arts Festival 2010: Art Breaks Out All Over
- DUMBO Art Under the Bridge Festival 2009 
- DUMBO Art Under the Bridge Festival 2008
- DUMBO Art Under the Bridge Festival 2007

Photos copyright MK Metz


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