by Skye Ruozzi & Lysistrata Wong

Trust can only be woven over time by multiple parties. Like a tightly braided rope, it’s strong enough to lift many times its weight and endure stresses, but once frayed, the disintegration is swift.

Using locally found Beach grass, Bitter panic grass, and Switch grass (Ammophila brevigulata, Panicum amarum, Panicum virgatum), the artists wove a circle and danced a story of the vulnerability of trusting and the anguish of betrayal. Attendees were given bivalve shells collected from the beach that had small holes, indicating the mollusks inside had been killed and eaten by other predatory mollusks who had drilled through the shells with their radula.

Participants marked the shells with feelings they wished to release. When the waves came, they tossed and reformed the braided circle on the shore, before eventually carrying it all out to sea. Artists said prayers to the goddess Yemaya and offered the released emotions to the goddess Ceto.

Found@Sea by Shadow Traffic

Invoking the impermanence of memory and engaging the cycles of birth and loss that characterize New York’s physical as well as cultural landscapes, this event combined storytelling, ephemeral found object sculpture, collaborative art making, and sustainability in a series of interventions that culminated in a participatory public event.

The project solicited ten creators to submit stories about beloved lost objects, and to construct found object art dedicated to these items during a one-day event in Fort Tilden on August 7th, 2021.

photos by Walter Wlodarkczyk and Osmany Cabrera