The Accidental Playground: Brooklyn Waterfront Narratives of the Undesigned and Unplanned

4. Outside Art

CHAPTER 4 OUTSIDE ART Exploring Wildness and Reclamation at the Water’s Edge on the first day of december 2001—a Saturday—dozens of people enjoyed unusually temperate conditions at BEDT. In the fading afternoon light, warm air prevailed and the many who remained—some still in short sleeves—were momentarily distracted from their leisure pursuits when an old beat-up truck with Massachusetts plates rumbled onto the terminal, entering from the usually locked North 7th Street gate. Stopping seventy-five yards in, the truck had already drawn a small crowd of admirers. BEDT’s primitive conditions and lack of access made it unusual to see any functioning motor vehicle, let alone a 1948 Ford pickup. A scruffy man in his early or mid-twenties hopped out of the driver’s seat along with a woman of a similar age from the passenger side. Another slightly younger man hopped off the truck bed, grabbing a chain harness and a thick rope. Largelyoblivioustothecuriousonlookerswhohadgatheredaroundthem,thedriverattachedthechaintothebackofthe pickup,whiletheothertwoambleddownthebankholdingtheharness.Amidtherocksatthewater’sedge,theyselected alargeboulder,perhaps200pounds,andwrappedtheharnessaroundit,whichtheyattachedtotheotherendoftherope. They stood back while driver, now back behind the wheel, slipped the Ford into gear and stepped on the gas. The engine revved and the wheels spun, but the rock moved only a bit before the harness slipped off. Reattaching the harness, they 102 outside art tried again—same result. On a third try—the ancient pickup now clearly straining by the drag of the boulder and lack of tractionontheloosedirtbelow—theyachieved10feetofprogressbeforetherockcaughtonaliponthebeach.Undaunted byfailedattemptsandprecariouslylittlemaneuveringroombetweenthelipandthegrowthalongtheeasternedgeofthe Slab, the driver and his mates gave it another try. Success! The rock was safely pulled over the lip and onto flatter ground. I continued to watch with several others, still unsure of what to make of the drama unfolding before us. The driver, now out of the truck again, had positioned himself with the other two over the rock. They removed the harness and braced themselves. “Ready, lift!” Heaving upward with all their strength, they deposited the stone into the open bed of the truck. The stone was not only heavy but difficult to grip; a drop could have crushed a foot. From atop the bed, the driver and a teammate awkwardly maneuvered the boulder toward the front of the truck, clearing space for more rocks, and then the crew went back down the bank to begin the process anew. Twenty-five minutes and three rocks later, four large stones were now secured in the bed of the pickup. The team, now out of breath but smiling, gave each other high-fives and called it an afternoon. BEDT’s informal beach was strewn with large boulders, many of which were probably used as fill years ago to incrementally extend the shoreline farther from its preindustrial extent. These stones were now exposed because erosion had taken away the concrete bulkhead whose wood undergirding had been eaten away by marine borers. Al, the driver Al (center in left photo) and his mates harvesting rocks on the Brooklyn waterfront (2001). exploring wildness and reclamation at the water’s edge 103 and owner of the truck, planned to use the boulders for sculptures he was creating. Back at his warehouse studio, he would drill eight holes in each rock, in two parallel rows of four. Each hole would then be plugged with “leg-like” steel tubing, with each pair of tubes forming a truss to carry the mass of the stone. The finished sculpture formed a spider, whose steel legs supported its body (the salvaged boulder) four to five feet off the ground. These rocks when transformed would join the spiders he had previously made on display at the Lunatarium, the art-event space in DUMBO where the fire spinners often performed. Al had known about the terminal for a few years. He said it was one of the “interesting places” along the Brooklyn and Queens waterfronts and praised the “good granite rocks” it possessed. “There’s only a couple of places in New York City where I can get down to the water to actually get rocks,” he explained, gesturing to his truck. “Because I can’t really drive this thing too far outside the city without it dying. . . . Lately I’ve been stealing rocks from here because there is no other place to find them.” For Al, BEDT provided the raw materials for sculpture that cannot easily be obtained in an urban environment. For those watching, he and his team provided theater, a display...