Conrad Shawcross

Pre-retroscope VI (Gowanus Canal Journey, NY) features a handmade rowboat that Conrad Shawcross built and launched for an expedition along Brooklyn’s contaminated Gowanus Canal in 2009. Equipped with a video camera on a revolving motorized track, the boat captured 360-degree panoramic views of the waterway and its urban surroundings. As presented in the gallery, a video projector and small screen replace the camera on the boat’s circular track, displaying video footage from the journey. Documentary photographs and a schematic wall drawing of the Gowanus Canal fill out the journey’s archive.

This project is part of a series of Shawcross’s excursions at sea and on land. Earlier iterations explored bodies of water in England, including the Lea River, Birling Gap Beach, the River Fal in Cornwall, and coastal South Cornwall. Maps, found objects, and recorded observations document Shawcross’s trips and reflect on his experience of each particular place.