Video by Tod Seelie.

With the summer of 2011 upon us, the Miss Rockaway Armada has begun our next and perhaps most ambitious non-river-traversing project. For the following summer months, the MRA will be living and creating in Philadelphia with the gracious help and support of the Philadelphia Art Alliance and the Pew Center for the Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative.

“Let Me Tell You About a Dream I Had: Miss Rockaway Armada is an innovative new art installation created by the nationally renowned Miss Rockaway Armada opening September, 2011. The nontraditional exhibit will feature a flotilla of several sculptural elements composed entirely from recycled and salvaged materials that parade from the Schuylkill River to various destinations throughout the city during the summer before being deconstructed into an exhibit at the Philadelphia Art Alliance (251 South 18th Street on Rittenhouse Square).”
– Philadelphia Art Alliance

To follow our progress and check out announcements for upcoming events, please check our project-specific website: http://rockawayatpaa.com. We’ll also be contributing photos to our flickr stream for the project here. And you can find the project on the facebook here.

“SEE THE DIFF?”
by THE MISS ROCKAWAY ARMADA & FRIENDS

CITY OF PHILADELPHIA MURAL ARTS PROGRAM
52nd & Media St.
(painters: anna ialeggio, arielle bier, robyn hasty, greg kalliche, charles buckets, luke bouschee)
SPONSORS: city of philadelphia department of human services, the surdna foundation
PARTNERS: the generous staff at Conestoga Playground, Mastery Charter School, & Southwest Community Enrichment Center
FEATURING THE WORK OF:
Andre Choney, Charles McNeil, Chuquese Howard-Hughes, Dante Gibbons, King Daryll, Dejah Vincent, Hannah Hassett, Jazmine Smith, Jemille Edwards, Jevon Edwards, Jirah, Lamech Allain,Maya Lee, Miles Lee, Dimonique Bautista,  Anthony Dixon,  Anthony Evans Jr, Tatiana Hall,  Jessica Mason, Ryan Mason, Brenea Mitchell, Gabrielle Mitchell, Jerrel R. Mitchell, NiJae Mitchell, Anita Pacheco, Kyree Richardson, Nyah M. Tucker, Khaleel Walker, Mahsaan S. Wearing, Niziyah White, Anthony Woodlock II

This mural was completed during the summer of 2010 as a pilot with PMA’s Big Picture program.  Thanks to BASEKAMP (for the hospitality and workspace), PHILLY MURAL ARTS (for everything!), OUR GENEROUS SPONSORS (for making this and other programs like it possible), OUR AMAZING STUDENTS (for your sticky fingers and the stars in your eyes)!!

Videos, pictures, animated gifs at solointomtoms .

… like greg said: “we done! what we doin’ now?”

MRA would like to announce our 2011 Philadelphia Mural Arts commission!  Bigger, badder, messier, sloppier!  We can’t wait… we’ll see you there!

Leaving y’all for now with this important message from our sponsors.

(photos from the opening of the Miss Rockaway Armada’s installation at Stroomhuis in Eindhoven, as part of the show “Heartland” at the Van Abbemuseum, full gallery here)

- Riding down the Dommel river in Eindhoven as dusk turned to night on one of the three boats made by some of the crew for the installation.
- Tattoo artist Brian Kelly set up shop in the printmaking studio at Stroomhuis during the opening. A handful of the crew got some new ink. One of our group didn’t have any money or anything to trade, so he offered up part of his leg to let Bryan practice with a new super-wide fill needle.
- We’ve had a really great experience here in Eindhoven, but were a bit put off by how rude some of (very drunk) guests were at the opening. From tagging on some of the paintings, to badgering one of our performers off the stage, and even one guy who was having some inappropriate-touching problems with our female crew members. We were kind of hoping Mr. Touchy-Feely would come back the second night so we could tackle and hogtie him.
- Some of the installation getting wrecked by drunken craziness on the opening night, including the giant sign from the Van Abbemuseum we had outside.
- Mike and John getting wasted and busting out some crazy freestyling for a good half an hour (see video below).
- Waking up one morning and finding a giant wok full of full lobsters. They were from the night before and were all cold and fishy, but whatever. Lobster is lobster.
- Part of the installation was a small diamond cave inside a treasure chest with a huge caveman SpongeBob Squarepants. It also was a very cozy bedroom and effective hot-box.
- It’s interesting to have helped build an installation with such varied parts as: a bar, a stage, a shadow puppet screen, two crows nests, a paper chandelier, a chapel, a cave, a dragons tail, and even a merch table.
- Wrapping up the opening weekend with a movie + pizza night in the installation. We piled a bunch of cot mattresses on the floor with blankets and watched movies projected on the shadow puppet screen.It was cold in there, but everyone was all on top of each other so it was fine. Spons brought us curly fries too. And shwarma pizza kinda sucks, by the way.

Miss Rockaway Armada floats their boats in front of the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven.

Jonathan Kaiser from Dark Dark Dark perfoming at Stroomhuis in Eindhoven.

Dark Dark Dark performing at the Miss Rockaway Armada opening at Stroomhuis in Eindhoven.

Dark Dark Dark performing with Rebecca at the Miss Rockaway Armada opening at Stroomhuis in Eindhoven.

John and Mike’s drunken freestyling at Stroomhuis in Eindhoven.

(photos from the second half of our stay in Eindhoven during the construction of our installation as part of the show “Heartland”)

- We are able to convince friends of ours from Brooklyn, the band Team Robespierre, to come and play at Burgers in Eindhoven before they head to Amsterdam while touring Europe. A bunch of the Rockaway crew goes to the show and the band plays to a pretty full (although somewhat static) house.
- Andre cooking amazing dinners for us while we watch YouTube videos about stuff we’ve done.
- The separated bike lane here are one of the best parts of the Netherlands. However they cause you to let your guard down, which is partially why one of us almost collided head-on with a motor scooter tearing down the wrong way on the bike path.
- Going to the Election Brunch at the Van Abbemuseum and feeling a bit out of place since we couldn’t understand all the things being said about our own country and election. At the same time it was probably better we couldn’t participate, it probably helped move things along quicker.
- While we were checking out the museum’s exhibition of the “Heartland” show, we stumbled upon a video featuring our friend Dana at the Braddock, PA space talking about the artist-run space. Love the randomness.
- Did we mention how good stroop wafels are?

Team Robespierre at Burgers in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

(photos from the Miss Rockaway installation process at Stroomhuis in Eindhoven, so far)

Some highlights from The Miss Rockaway Armada’s time so far in Eindhoven, Netherlands:

- Going to a thrift store in an old school to find John some new pants after he blew the ass out of his old ones. The old lady who was helping us insisted on leading him by the hand around the school showing people the hole in his pants, and then made him change out of them before he could leave the store.
- Rescuing messed up abandoned bikes and fixing them up to get around.
- Staying and working at the long-established squat Stroomhuis run by Andre, who on top of being amazingly generous, also happens to be an incredible chef.
- Working outside in the cold/rain.
- Competing for who has sustained the worst concussion so far.
- Feeling almost respectable when the Van Abbemuseum throws a welcome dinner for us.
- Finding it to be colder and damper than expected, which leads to needing and the subsequent hunt for long underwear (which resulted in settling for blue camo stretchy pants from the little boys section of a fire-damage store).
- The resident chickens keeping us company, roosting in the bar we built, and of course shitting everywhere.
- The group attending an art opening at MU, and then promptly turning it into a crazy dance party. The momentum came down a bit after one of the crew broke the glass of a display case, but only momentarily. Apparently there was an after party at a nearby bar where the remaining Rockaway members got thrown out, more than once.
- Really enjoying waking up (in the living room) of the nice artist housing and peering out into the back courtyard space. One almost is forced to feel civilized regardless of how late you were up hanging from dusty scaffolding screwing pieces of mismatched soggy scrapped wood together into something you hope can support its own weight.

MP3:

This is what we listened to really loud on repeat for a whole day while working. It reverberated off the walls and made your chest hum. It was an amazing thing, transforming the feel of mangling wood and nails in a tiled room dimly lit by haphazardly placed bare bulbs.

• Earth – Land Of Some Other Order

A band’s place in myspace.

DARK DARK DARK
The Gamut
Vampire Hands
U.S. Girls
Trillions of Gallons of Gas
Brownbird Rudy Relic

DJ DIRTY FINGER
DJ RUSTY LAZER (new orleans bounce!!)

[SURREAL ESTATE]
15 Thames St. | East Williamsburg, Brooklyn
L-Morgan | 9pm |$5-$7 Suggested | All Ages

Why? Since the termination of the Miss Rockaway Armada in St. Louis last summer, former crew members have been collaborating on new creative projects that have grown out of the energy of the Mississippi river. After an installation at MassMOCA last April, the crew was invited to create an installation in Amsterdam for Program Heartland. Now we need the cash to get there and buy materials!

Here’s a map:

View Larger Map

Backyard campfire.

Long Gone Gabe heats it up on his guitar.

Wendell and Laura cut a rug.

Fire-lit artist’s housing.

Friends help injured Mike Boushee make it up the hill to the picnic.

Daredevil Marshall on the not-so-natural not-such-a-bridge.

Kevin Caplicki strikes it GQ-style.

Luke Boushee savors the view.

George communes with the Universe.

Just in case we may have given the impression we were all work and no play up at Mass MoCA, here are a few photos from our one day off (the day AFTER the opening) spent up at the natural land bridge in North Adams, and photos and a video from our backyard BBQ.

Here’s a video Dark Dark Dark performing at the same backyard BBQ as in the photos above:

(photos from the installation Being Here Is Better Than Wishing We’d Stayed by the Miss Rockaway Armada at Mass MoCA)

We have finished our stay and installation at Mass MoCA. Being Here Is Better Than Wishing We’d Stayed is now open through April 2009. We had a blast, and are extremely grateful to the museum and it’s staff for offering us this opportunity to continue to create. We hope people will enjoy the installation as much as we enjoyed making it. Spending time together in North Adams was also wonderful, and hopefully we should have some photos from our non-working moments (and they were just that, moments) to share soon.

There is a larger photo gallery from the installation here.

Thank you again Mass MoCA!

A video walk-through:

Dark Dark Dark performing with Long Gone Gabe at the opening: