Tuesday, April 1, 2014
6:30 – 8:30pm

New Draft Collective: Re-Current

Created in 2011 by artists Michi Jigarjian and Libby Pratt, New Draft Collective engages as a collaborative art practice and facilitator, as well as a publisher under the imprint Secretary Press. Revisiting the historical context of the symposium, New Draft Collective constructs platforms for dialogue around its events, including documenting the resulting narratives through publication, installation and on the Web. While on a day-to-day basis New Draft Collective consists of Jigarjian and Pratt, the collective expands with each project, collecting new research and generating new collaborations along the way.  

On October 5, 2013, New Draft Collective launched the multi-tiered event Re-Current. Hosted aboard the Shearwater schooner, 46 artists, curators and urban planners took part in a four-hour sail around the New York Harbor. Informed by and responding to the landscapes along the navigational route, the ensuing conversations, performances and readings wove a complex web of interpolated histories, with discussions engaging topics ranging from de-industrialization, urban planning and ecology, to sea shanties and the predominance of men in the art world.

Since the launch of Re-Current, the challenge of how the event would live on and in what form has led to a series of spin-offs such as New Draft Collective’s video Twirl, created in response to Louise Lawler's Birdcalls of 1972, which had played as the boat sailed past lower Manhattan. Such spin-offs have in turn become extensions of the original event, allowing new paths of discovery to emerge.

With a goal to advance Re-Current as a non-static event and publication that broadens our understanding of the New York Waterway’s history and traditions through new collaborations, New Draft Collective will present and discuss the impetus for Re-Current, inviting guests to engage in both an evaluation of the event itself and a brainstorming session directed towards expanding research in response to the lines of inquiry that emerged during the event.

New Draft Collective: Michi Jigarjian and Libby Pratt are recipients of a Swing Space 2013 artist residency at Building 110: LMCC’s Arts Center at Governors Island made possible by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Recent projects include the launch of MOLD:Pedestal (Vol. 1) at Printed Matter, NYC (Secretary Press).

In attendance:

Benj Gerdes, artist
Melissa Levin, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
Nechama Winston, Art21