Swoon: Submerged Motherlands at the Brooklyn Museum of Art

Fusing the aesthetics of an art-school education with the environmental immediacy of street art, Swoon has come to fame in the last few years for her large, intricate, wheat-pasted prints, urban interventions, and community-based projects. Submerged Motherlands brings her practice indoors in order to create a new, immersive environment within the Brooklyn Museum’s 5th floor rotunda gallery. Look up, look down, stand back, plunge in—the installation encourages a thorough investigation of its many nooks and crannies, and rewards the viewer at every angle.

Swoon: Submerged Motherlands will be on view until August 24, 2014. For more information, visit the Brooklyn Museum’s website.

All photos by Renée DeVoe Mertz, May 4, 2014.

New York, May 2014

Zoe Leonard (b. 1961). 945 Madison Avenue, 2014. Lens and darkened room (camera obscura). Whitney Biennial; Curator: Anthony Elms.
Kiki Smith (b. 1954). Lilith, 1994, United States. Bronze with glass eyes. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Jean de Liège (d. 1381). Tomb Effigy Bust of Marie of France, c. 1381, from the Chapel of Notre-Dame-la-Blanche, Royal Abbey of Saint-Denis, Ile-de-France, France. Marble with lead inlays. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Miljohn Ruperto (b. 1971); animated by Aimee de Jongh (b. 1988). Janus, 2014. Digital video, color, sound. 3:30 min. Whitney Biennial; Curator: Stuart Comer.
Dan Graham (b. 1942) with Günther Vogt (b. 1957). Roof Garden Commission, 2014, United States. Ivy, steel, mirrored glass. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Ai Weiwei (b. 1957). Moon Chest, 2008. 7 chests in huali wood. Brooklyn Museum of Art.
Alma Allen (b. 1970). Three Untitled sculptures, 2013. Marble on walnut and walnut on aluminum. Whitney Biennial; Curator: Michelle Grabner.
Ai Weiwei (b. 1957). Coca-Cola Vase, 2007. Neolithic vase (5000–3000 BCE) and paint. Brooklyn Museum of Art.
Circle of Conrad Meit of Worms (1480s–1550/51). Lucretia, 1500–15, Flanders. Boxwood. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
View across the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, May 2, 2014.
Ai Weiwei (b. 1957). He Xie, 2010. 3,200 porcelain crabs. Brooklyn Museum of Art.
Jean-Joseph Carriès (1855–94). Le Grenouillard, c. 1891, France. Stoneware. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Riccio (Andrea Briosco, 1470–1532). Striding Satyr with Vase Inkwell and Shell Lamp, ca. 1507, Padua. Bronze. (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Swoon (Caledonia Dance Curry, b. 1978). Swoon: Submerged Motherlands, 2014. Mixed media installation with the boats, Alice and Maria, from a former 2008 performance. Brooklyn Museum of Art.
Lucas Samaras (b. 1936). Untitled, A, 1966, United States. Graphite and incised lines on paper. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Charlemagne Palestine (b. 1945). hauntteddd!! nhuntteddd!! n daunttlesss!! n shuntteddd!!, 2013. Stairwell installation with toys, speakers, sound. Whitney Biennial; Curator: Anthony Elms.
Bjarne Melgaard (b. 1967). 2014 installation with mixed media and video. Whitney Biennial; Curator: Stuart Comer.
Pierre-Adrien Dalpayrat (1844–1910) and Alphonse Voisin-Delacroix (1857–1893). Vase with Face, 1892–93, France. Stoneware. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Ai Weiwei (b. 1957). Ruyi, 2012. Porcelain. Brooklyn Museum of Art.
Swoon (Caledonia Dance Curry, b. 1978). Swoon: Submerged Motherlands, 2014. Mixed media installation with the boats, Alice and Maria, from a former 2008 performance. Brooklyn Museum of Art.
Ai Weiwei (b. 1957). Brooklyn Museum of Art.
Swoon (Caledonia Dance Curry, b. 1978). Swoon: Submerged Motherlands, 2014. Mixed media installation with the boats, Alice and Maria, from a former 2008 performance. Brooklyn Museum of Art.
Ai Weiwei (b. 1957). Bowls of Pearls, 2006. Porcelain bowls and freshwater pearls. Brooklyn Museum of Art.
Saint Elzéar, c. 1370–73, from the Franciscan church, Apt, Provence, France. Alabaster. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

All photos by Renée DeVoe Mertz, May 2–4, 2014.

New York, Summer 2013

Nautilus Cup, Dutch (Utrecht), 1602. Nautilus shell, gilt silver. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Saint Sebastian, Austrian (Salzburg), 17th century. Ivory. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Oracle Figure (Kafigeledjo), Senufo culture, Côte d’Ivoire, 19th – mid-20th century. Wood, iron, bone, porcupine quills, feathers, commercially woven fiber, organic material. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Terracotta Hadra hydra (water jar), Ptolemaic Crete, late 3rd century BCE. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Dead Christ with Angels, Édouard Manet, 1864. Oil on canvas. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Amemo (Mask of Humankind), El Anatsui (Ghanaian, b. 1944), 2010. Aluminum and copper wire. Installation at the Brooklyn Museum.
Pierced Screen, Mughal India, second half of the 16th century. Red sandstone. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Marble funerary altar of Cominia Tyche, Roman, ca. 90–100 CE. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Peak (?), El Anatsui (Ghanaian, b. 1944), 2010. Installed at the Brooklyn Museum.
Central Governor, Saul Melman, 2010, installation with gold leaf and saliva, and Untitled, Matt Mullican, 1997. PS1, Queens.
Church of Saint Vincent Ferrer
Afrum I (White), James Turrell (American, b. 1943), 1967. Projected light. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
E 65th St. and Lexington
Line outside the Rain Room, MoMA, July 20, 2013
Rain Room, rAndom International (based in London), 2012. Installed in lot beside The Museum of Modern Art, West 54 St.
Ronin, James Turrell (American, b. 1943), 1968. LED light. Collection of the artist, on display at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
Gli (Wall), El Anatsui (Ghanaian, b. 1944), 2010. Aluminum and copper wire. Installation at the Brooklyn Museum.
Detail from a Scene of the Legend of Saint Germain of Paris and the History of His Relics, Île-de-France, Paris, ca. 1245–47. Pot-metal and colorless glass with vitreous paint. The Cloisters.
Aten Reign, James Turrell (American, b. 1943), 2013. Rotunda, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
Twisted Face Mask, Veracruz (Mexico), 600–900. Ceramic and pigment. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Reclining Nude, Amedeo Modigliani (Italian, 1884–1920), 1917. Oil on canvas. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Two Hands, Claudette Schreuders (b. 1973, Pretoria, South Africa), 2010. Jelutong wood, enamel, oil paint. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Terracotta comic actors, Greek, late 5th–early 4th century BCE. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Christ Presenting the Keys to Saint Peter and the Law to Saint Paul, Germany, Westphalia, 1150–1200. Elephant ivory. The Cloisters.
The Third-Class Carriage, Honoré Daumier (French, 1808–79), ca. 1862–64. Oil on canvas. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Atrium of the Greek and Roman Galleries, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Upper East Side, Manhattan
Pair of ewers with wild men, Nuremberg (?), ca. 1500. Gilt silver, enamel, and paint. The Cloisters.
House exterior, Harlem
Cuxa Cloister, the Cloisters, Fort Tryon Park
Pool, Meg Webster, 2013. Installed at PS1, Queens.
Commemorative monument, Maya (Guatemala), first quarter of the 8th century. Limestone with traces of paint. Metropolitan Museum of Art, on loan from the Guatemalan government.
Eagle Attacking a Mountain Lion, Kawanabe Kyōsai (Japanese, 1831–89), 1885. Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Roundel with silver stain. The Cloisters.
Handle in the Shape of a Dragon’s Head, Eastern Han dynasty (China), 1st–2nd century. Gilded bronze with traces of red pigment. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Christ Child with an Apple, workshop of Michel Erhart (Ulm, Germany), ca. 1470–80. Willow with original paint and traces of gilding.
Space Womb, Long Island City, Queens
Colony, a77 (Argentinian). Installed in PS1, Queens.
Somewhere in Manhattan
5 Pointz, Long Island City, Queens, as seen from the 7 train
Tomb of Ermengol VII, Count of Urgell, Catalan, Lerida, ca. 1300–50. Limestone with traces of paint. The Cloisters.
Terracotta statuette of a grotesque man with a shield, Greek, 2nd–1st century BCE. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Saint Roch, Normandy, France, early 16th century. Oak with paint and gilding. The Cloisters.
Beaker with Apes, South Lowlands, probably Burgundian Territories, ca. 1425–50. Silver, silver gilt, and painted enamel. The Cloisters.
Three Apes Assembling a Trestle Table, Germany (?), 1480–1500. Colorless glass with vitreous paint and silver stain. The Cloisters.
Ink Splash, El Anatsui (Ghanaian, b. 1944), 2010. Aluminum and copper wire. Installation at the Brooklyn Museum.
5 Pointz, Long Island City, Queens
Langon Chapel, The Cloisters, Fort Tryon Park

All photographs by Renée DeVoe Mertz, July 19–21, 2013.