Join us for a presentation by vintage fashion and fabric expert Janice Everett on battle wear of yore.

What has the charge of the light brigade got to do with cardigans? How did French soldiers’ underwear become a multi-billion dollar industry? Why did an article of World War I airmen’s military uniform end up on fashion runways? And what is the connection between Napoleon, rubber boots and Billy Connolly? Find out more about the relationship between battle and fashion at this fascinating presentation. 

Janice Everett has an MA in design from the Royal College of Art, London, and a BA from Hornsey College of Art, London. She is a designer of knitwear, accessories and printed textiles, a vintage fashion and fabric expert, and an adjunct professor at LIM College teaching the business of fashion.

Please join us for opening reception of Battle Ground, the third and last exhibit of our yearlong Battle theme. Battle Ground will explore the pathos of the Battle of Brooklyn, stimulating our collective memory, evoking parallels between past and present, while focusing on the complexity, moral ambiguity, and devastation of this important Revolutionary confrontation. Historical imagery, rendered meaningless by over-use and political manipulation, will be revived in new forms.

The word “revolution” circles around us, forming the early consciousness of our country. History, also cyclical, repeats itself, and when it is forgotten, it haunts us, lying dormant in our collective memories. In 1776 one such haunting unfolded across a wide swath of what is now Brooklyn. Perhaps the battle is often forgotten (relative to others) because it was, in the words of Walt Whitman, a “resolute defeat.”

The battle-haunting still rages around us at Proteus Gowanus. Its culminating events took place just feet from our gallery location, along what was then the Gowanus Creek. The fields and marshes of 1776 are now a post-industrial urban landscape, and the Gowanus Canal is a hotly contested Federal Superfund and development site.

Maryland Willow, Robert Gould

Battle Ground is curated by Sasha Chavchavadze with help from Robert Gould, Angela Kramer and Eva Melas.

Battle Ground participants include artists, educators, urban planners and writers:

Paul Benney, Peter Bonner, Sasha Chavchavadze, Eymund Diegel, Robert Gould, Katarina Jerinic, Andrew Keating, Christina Kelly, V. Komar & A. Melamid, Angela Kramer, Robyn Love, Eva Melas, Duke Riley, Robert Sullivan.

*Special thanks to the restaurant and bakery, Runner & Stone, which takes its name from tide mills that operated along the Gowanus Creek in the 18th century.

Led by artist Eva Melas, this workshop explores the important role ships played in the Battle of Brooklyn. In the summer of 1776, Red Hook residents could see the imposing fleet of more than 400 British ships bearing down on Brooklyn. Gen. George Washington later rounded up humble vessels to make his retreat to Manhattan from Brooklyn Heights.

Participants in this family workshop will  make their own improvised armada from objects found in Brooklyn today, such as coffee cups and cardboard packaging. Weather permitting, the toy boats will be test launched from the deck of the Waterfront Museum barge. 

This workshop is part the Battle Pass Project, a Proteus Gowanus initiative exploring ideas of conflict, history and memory by marking sites of the Battle of Brooklyn. This epic battle, sometimes forgotten in the very neighborhoods where it occurred, was the largest confrontation of the Revolutionary War. The Battle Pass Project presents a series of multimedia, interdisciplinary installations, performances and family workshops. All are free.

Saturday, October 13, 1-3pm
Location:  The Old Stone House, 336 3rd Street, btwn 4th & 5th Aves, Bklyn

FREE

At the Battle of Brooklyn on August 27, 1776, a small band of soldiers from Maryland fended off British and Hessian forces at the Old Stone House; their bravery allowed other Americans to escape across the Gowanus. 

In this workshop, families will decorate tricorn hats with cockades they make from ribbons, buttons and feathers.  During the Revolutionary War, soldiers wore cockades to declare their allegiance to a cause.  Whether you are a rebel, or not, come make a hat that shows the world where you stand!

This workshop is part of the Battle Pass Project, a Proteus Gowanus initiative.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.  

Conceived and directed by Paul Benney

Battle on Bergen is a site-specific performance incorporating elements of dance, street theater, puppetry, and live music to depict certain events from the Battle of Brooklyn, drawing parallels between the American Revolutionary War and political events today.

The performance is co-directed by Selene Colburn and features David Freeman, James Hannaham, Aaron Stanley, Willis Bigelow, Alan Balicki, Katie Merz, John Bauman, Tyler Sussman, and J.J. Hill-Wood.

A reading of Walt Whitman’s poem about the Battle of Brooklyn, The Centenarian’s Story, will follow, arranged by The Walt Whitman Project. 

Battle on Bergen will engage with the public as it explores the drama of the Battle of Brooklyn, which took place on August 27^th, 1776 weeks after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Sometimes forgotten in the very neighborhoods where it took place, it was the largest battle of the American Revolutionary War.

As part of the Battle Pass series of public art installations and performances marking sites of the Battle of Brooklyn, the performance will take place at the site of “Battle Pass – Revolution II,” an installation by Sasha Chavchavadze suggesting ship masts planted in the ground as a symbol of resistance by Revolutionaries before the Battle. A collaboration with the  NYC DOT Urban Art Program, the installation incorporates phrases from Whitman’s poem about the Battle, The Centenarian’s Story.

To learn more about the Battle of Brooklyn and upcoming commemorative events, visit the Old Stone Househttp://theoldstonehouse.org/

Special thanks to Kim Maier and Maggie Weber at The Old Stone House; Greg Trupiano of the Walt Whitman Project; the NYC DOT Urban Art Program; The Boerum Hill Association; Angela Kramer Murphy; Bob Sullivan; Michael Swaine; Local 61.

“Do you hear the clank of the muskets? …In the midst of you stands an encampment very old…”

—Walt Whitman, “The Centenarian’s Story”

Join us for the opening reception of Battle Pass, an interdisciplinary homage to the Revolutionary Battle of Brooklyn. Revolution I includes a collaborative installation (on view through March 31), and a reception workshop and performance. These events will take place at GRIDSPACE, a Crown Heights art space, located at 112 Rogers Avenue/corner of Sterling.

Battle Pass - Revolution I

Installation by Sasha Chavchavadze, Eva Melas, Robyn Love, and Angela Kramer Murphy

The reception will include:
A cockade-making workshop with Robyn Love
A Battle Pass performance by Paul Benney

Proteus Gowanus is pleased to announce this first in a series of public installations, workshops and performances paying homage to the Revolutionary Battle of Brooklyn at selected battle sites throughout Brooklyn. A collaborative group of artists, writers, historians and urban planners will draw parallels between past and present as they explore the complexity and devastation of war. The project marks an early start on our next theme year: BATTLE.

The first, biggest and arguably most important battle of the Revolutionary War is sometimes forgotten in the very neighborhoods where it occurred; the fields and marshes of 1776 are now a post-industrial urban landscape that includes a Federal Superfund site. Battle Pass: Revolution I at Gridspace is located several hundred feet from Bedford Pass, once a rocky outcropping that played a decisive role in the Battle of Brooklyn.

The installation can be seen 24 hours a day in the GRIDSPACE storefront window from March 2nd – March 31st

To reach GRIDSPACE take the 2, 3, 4 or 5 train to Franklin