'Swoon: Submerged Motherlands' at Brooklyn Museum

A massive seven story soft sculpture tree is about to open at Swoon: Submerged Motherlands at the Brooklyn Museum.

The seaworthy works of art have returned "home" to Brooklyn as Swoon. Swoon is a singular street artist who once wheat-pasted her hand cut portraits anonymously in hidden city doorways. She is also known for her fervently collaborative projects that have carried her to galleries, museums and socially-rooted arts activism in places like Kenya, Haiti, London, Oaxaca, New Orleans, Miami, Braddock (Pennsylvania), Boston, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

She is clearly at the helm, this dynamic exceeds the typical artist and her studio paradigm.

Swoon explains: "We are pouring so much into this show and for me I think part of the reason I'm willing to do it is because it is my home. The museum has been awesome and they have given me as much as they can and I have just thrown everything at it because I'm like 'I'm home, this is my place.' For me this show is different from installations I have done in other museums and other places".

Managing Curator of Exhibitions at the museum is Sharon Matt Atkins. Mrs. Sharon talks about the command of the space and its transformational effect. "Swoon did not hold back in fully utilizing our grand rotunda gallery. She has been working for three and a half weeks at the museum with a large team to get the installation ready. Much of the work involved assembling parts made in the studio, but then bringing it all together with the finishing details onsite", she says.