Duke Riley brings his pigeons to the Brooklyn Navy Yard for special weekend performances from May 7 to June 12 (photo by Will Star)
Who: Creative Time and Duke Riley
What: “Fly by Night”
Where: Brooklyn Navy Yard, Sands St. at Navy St.
When: Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, May 7 – June 12, free but advance tickets required, 7:00 or 7:30
Why: In his winter 2013–14 exhibition at Magnan Metz in Chelsea, “See You at the Finish Line,” the Boston-born, Brooklyn-based artist Duke Riley documented in astounding detail his use of camera-carrying homing pigeons he sent between Cuba and Key West. Riley has now teamed up with nonprofit arts organization Creative Time, whose previous projects include Kara Walker’s “A Subtlety or the Marvelous Sugar Baby” at the Domino Sugar Factory in Williamsburg and “Drifting in Daylight” in Central Park, for “Fly by Night,” in which thousands of pigeons will emerge from a former naval aircraft carrier docked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on weekend nights at dusk in May and June and put on a performance in the sky involving LED lights with special messages. “With the keen timing of a conductor, this winged symphony weaves together the narrative threads of overlapping histories — a forgotten waterfront island, a creature we see daily in our landscape but rarely look at, and an artist who stands on a rooftop linking his past to his present in a swirling crescendo,” curator Meredith Johnson explains in a statement. “Like the birds themselves, no two performances are the same. Lacing together old New York and new, ‘Fly by Night’ asks us to stop, watch, listen, and revere this extraordinary creature that has shared the triumphs and tragedies of the human experience — uniting individuals, cultures, and generations of fanciers in a tale of both the ancient and modern city.” Admission to the performances are free but must be reserved in advance here. In addition, the project is seeking volunteers to help engage the public, ensure safety, and assist with tech issues; you can find out more about those opportunities and benefits here.