Sculpture Seminar: Concrete Boatbuilding: Its Technique and Its Future was a seminar held as part of The University of Trash at SculptureCenter, organized by Michael Cataldi and Nils Norman. Over three consecutive Sundays (July 5–19, 2009), participants attended a lecture, built their own small-scale ferrocement tugboats and barges, and launched a concrete flotilla into Newtown Creek adjacent to SculptureCenter.
The first session introduced concrete as a material for boatbuilding, architecture, and sculpture, together with Newtown Creek’s history of trash, concrete production, and industrial development, and included demonstrations of ferrocement construction using concrete and steel mesh. During the second session, participants built their own ferrocement boats. The final session concluded with the launch of the boats into Newtown Creek, marking its re-emergence as a site of recreational and environmental interest.
Sculpture Seminar: Concrete Boatbuilding:
Its Technique and Its Future, 2009
The University of Trash, Sculpture Center, Queens, New York
For this public seminar, held over the course of three consecutive Sundays, participants made their own small-scale concrete tugboats and barges. We then launched our concrete flotilla in Newtown Creek, adjacent to the Sculpture Center.