Saturday, August 08, 2009

You have to wear a toga...

...The Battle for Queens. Artist Duke Riley plans to stage a Coliseum-style naval war; artists and curators to don gladiator gear. Cannibalizing the '64 World Fair's hockey rink. WSJ:
Much of the Thursday battle is still unscripted, but teams of artists and curators in gladiator gear intend to board their vessels and sink their rivals in front of spectators dressed in togas. Mr. Riley, whose tattoo-style drawings are collected by major patrons like Whitney Museum of American Art board member Melva Bucksbaum and the Brooklyn Museum, will be on hand himself and may dole out buckets of fake blood. He says he can’t afford to pay workers, so all the participants on the project are unpaid volunteers. Rebecca Goyette, an educator at the Museum of Modern Art who has been assigned to play Caligula’s wife, says she won’t mind getting splattered: “I want to fight.” [snip]

Mr. Riley garnered attention in 2007 when the Coast Guard arrested him for floating his homemade, Revolutionary War-style submarine close to the Queen Mary 2 cruise ship anchored in New York Harbor. After terrorism-related fears were put to rest, the city’s police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, chided the artist’s “marine mischief” and released him.
If you're in town on Thursday, you can come and play too, "Those About To Die Salute You" but you have to wear a toga.

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