A concrete boat, really?
Does it float or is it just a sculpture that looks like a boat?
Since the mid-nineteenth century, concrete has been a popular alternative to wood and steel in the construction of boats large and small. Over the course of three consecutive Sundays The University of Trash will provide a sculpture seminar in which participants make their own small-scale concrete tugboats and barges culminating in a launch of a concrete flotilla in Newtown Creek adjacent to the Sculpture Center.
The first Sunday’s presentation will serve as an introduction to concrete as a boat making material, an architectural and sculptural medium and Newtown Creek’s sometimes infamous relationship to the history of trash, concrete and sculpture. There will also be demonstrations of the unique properties of ferocment – a hybrid of specially mixed concrete and steel mesh (chicken wire). On the second Sunday, participants will make their own ferocement boats. The third Sunday’s launch will serve as a celebration of Newtown Creek as a site of renewed recreational and environmental interest.
The text and slides from this presentation are here:
The Launch