While pigeons aren’t exactly greeted with open arms in New York — often fondly referred to locally as ‘rats of the sky’ — artist Duke Riley has found a way to elevate the common urban fowl via 'Fly by Night', a performance that has brought hundreds to the gates of Brooklyn’s Navy Yard, eager to catch a glimpse of the birds in action.
Taking a page from the historic tradition of pigeon fancying, Riley has trained a flock of over 2,000 birds to perform an elegant choreography, each with a small LED light adhered to their ankles to create a glittering display across the night’s sky.
Standing atop their coops, Riley and his collaborators wave large swaths of fabrics, guiding the birds through a series of practiced movements.
The event, which has been sold-out since before it opened has a waitlist of nearly 40,000, is now extended through 19 June, adding three additional performances to its run. Those interested in attending can reserve a ticket or become a member of Creative Time, the creative initiative that has helped organise numerous public art projects (including this one), to ensure two tickets to one of the final performances.
‘Creative Time is committed to helping artists realise their dreams, and Duke's dream was for Fly By Night to be his gift to New York,’ says Katie Hollander, Creative Time’s executive director. ‘We are grateful for the opportunity for more New Yorkers to experience its magic.’
Those less fortunate to snag a ticket can also view the spectacle from across the river at the East River Park Ampitheater.
Taking a page from the historic tradition of pigeon fancying, Riley has trained a flock of over 2,000 birds to perform an elegant choreography, each with a small LED light adhered to their ankles to create a glittering display across the night’s sky
Standing atop their coops, Riley and his collaborators wave large swaths of fabrics, guiding the birds through a series of practiced movements
Made possible by Creative Time, an initiative that has helped organize numerous public art projects (including this one), its executive director Katie Hollander says, ‘Creative Time is committed to helping artists realize their dreams, and Duke's dream was for Fly By Night to be his gift to New York.’
The event, which has been sold-out since before it opened has a waitlist of nearly 40,000, is now extended through 19 June, adding three additional performances to its run
INFORMATION
'Fly by Night' is now extended until 19 June. For more details, please visit the Eventbrite website
Photography: Tod Seelie
ADDRESS
Brooklyn Navy Yard
63 Flushing Ave
Brooklyn, New York
-
Compact creativity: the best pocketable tech tools show that small is still beautifulThese dimunitive devices offer up functionality and portability in every field, from capturing every kind of sound, vision and imagery as well as ways to edit, write and play it all back
-
Portrait of a modernist maverick: last chance to see the Jean Cocteau retrospective in Venice‘Cocteau: The Juggler’s Revenge’, celebrating the French artist's defiance of artistic labels, is in its final week at Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice
-
Brazilian island hotel Auka Boipeba offers a unique approach to the alfresco experienceDesigned by architecture studio FGMF, Auka Boipeba describes itself as an inn, though it’s certainly unlike any inn we’ve ever been to
-
Mark Armijo McKnight’s bodily landscapes capture the tactile serenity of the American WestThe artist’s new exhibition at the Whitney Museum, which is organised by the museum curator Drew Sawyer, offers a succinct window into his contemplative suggestion of queering a landscape
-
Dark, glamorous and hedonistic: a photography book captures New York in the 1990sNew York: High Life, Low Life, by Dafydd Jones, goes behind the scenes of New York society
-
Derrick Alexis Coard’s portraits are a sensitive, positive testimony to Black menThe late artist Derrick Alexis Coard’s retrospective ‘I Am That I Am’, at New York’s Salon 94, honours his ‘symbolic expression for possible change for the African-American male community’
-
Intimacy, violence and the uncanny: Joanna Piotrowska in PhiladelphiaArtist and photographer Joanna Piotrowska stages surreal scenes at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania
-
First look: Sphere’s new exterior artwork draws on a need for human connectionWallpaper* talks to Tom Hingston about his latest large-scale project – designing for the Exosphere
-
Marc Hom reframes traditional portraiture in Cooperstown, NY‘Marc Hom: Re-Framed’ has taken over the grounds of the Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, planting Samuel L Jackson, Gwyneth Paltrow and more ‘personalities of the world’ into the landscape
-
Alexander May, founder of LA studio Sized, on the joys of creative polymathyCreative director Alexander May tells us of the multidisciplinary approach that drives his LA studio Sized and its offspring, a 5,000 sq ft event space and an exhibition series
-
50 of America’s top creatives, photographed by Inez & VinoodhPhotographed exclusively for Wallpaper* by Inez & Vinoodh, we present a portfolio of 50 creatives driving the current discourse on American culture and its dynamic evolution
