NEW YORK – Since she last appeared in Reading the Streets, wheat paste warrior Swoon, aka Caledonia Curry, has had a very productive last two years, blurring the lines between art and activism.
Her 2014 Brooklyn Museum show “Submerged Motherlands,” was a big hit. It featured a sculptural tree in the museum’s rotunda gallery, whose foliage was composed of intricately cut paper, and whose roots were a series of boats and life rafts, a reference to the repercussions of climate change and Hurricane Sandy. In 2015, she started the Heliotrope Foundation to fund her community development projects in New Orleans, Los Angeles and Haiti.
Following the successful projects in New Orleans and Haiti, Swoon is currently running a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund the production of 20,000 ceramic tiles to weatherproof the roof of Braddock Tiles, a former church in Braddock, Pennsylvania. Where others saw decay, Swoon saw enormous potential, for artists’ space, for arts education, for an economic engine and new jobs for a town struggling with the long-term effects of a lost industrial base, and even more lost hope. Swoon acquired the building in 2009. At the time, it was considered hopeless, slated for demolition within a year. As of this writing, the project is only $4,000 from its $50,000, and accepting donations until Nov. 12.
As if that weren’t enough, she recently participated in a Philadelphia Mural Arts program that provides artists with space and funding to create a new piece, in exchange for working with underserved communities; Swoon held an art therapy program for recovering drug addicts. Her choice of a population was personal, as Swoon’s mother struggled with substance abuse, ending tragically in death two years ago.
All of this work doesn’t leave a ton of time for new street art, but fortunately there are plenty of existing pieces to tide you over, including a large scale wall I found on a recent Red Hook trip. This mural features many of my favorite Swoon motifs: a woman, possibly a sea goddess, who looks like she’s about to emerge from the ocean to bless us lesser creatures, a castle, children creating their own art, and intricate white flowers that look like they’re made of lace. Visit the mural on Pioneer Street in Red Hook, right next to the Pioneer Works Gallery.
