In this hands-on workshop, you will work with the Battle Pass Collective of artists, performers and educators as you explore the Revolutionary Battle of Brooklyn, which culminated on the Gowanus Creek in 1776. The workshop will connect past to present as we explore conflict, history and memory,  searching for new forms for imagery that has become cliche from overuse and manipulation.

Eva Melas, Porcelain Pistol

The workshop will include: a cockade-making workshop with artist Robyn Love in which you will explore your inner rebel; boat-building using found materials with artist Eva Melas; a performance workshop with Paul Benney, culminating in a Battle Pass performance in the MoMA hallways; a presentation by educator Angela Kramer on historic tide mills that once existed along the Gowanus and throughout the New York area, after which you will experiment with your own mill wheels; an overview of the Battle Pass Project by PG founder and co-creative director Sasha Chavchavadze.

We look forward to seeing you at MoMA! Buy your tickets NOW

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.

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.  

“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