At sunset this Saturday, October 3—WWII women’s history—meets fashion—meets aviation—meets ecology—meets preservation at Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy’s (JBRPC) second biennial Floyd Bennett Field! Public Arts Festival, in which the works of 21 artists will transform the monumental brick-and-glass façade of historic Hangars 3 and 4 into a massive outdoor canvas brought to life through projection mapping, animation, light, sound, and storytelling. The Rockaway Times had the privilege of interviewing seven of these artists about how their artistic passion for storytelling took them on a deep dive into the history, wildlife and determined preservation of Floyd Bennett and its home, Jamaica Bay.
Iris Du: “Passionate Fantasia of Animal Musicians.”
Chinese-born Du is a New York-based illustrator and artist whose work explores self-awareness, nature, imagination, and the cycles of life. She holds an MFA in illustration from the Fashion Institute of Technology and a BFA in Communications Design from Pratt Institute. She shared, “When applying for my work to be submitted to the festival, I was attracted to the themes of water, aviation, and history. So, when my proposal was accepted, I researched the history of Jamaica Bay’s native people, and the wildlife. I first drew the images by hand, then used watercolor to paint the elements on paper.” Du’s animated work depicts animals in Jamaica Bay as musicians playing various instruments.
Chloe Pitkoff: “Birds of the Waves.”
Pitkoff is a multimedia artist whose work spans a variety of disciplines, including animation, children’s book illustration, theatrical prop production, mural installation, fine art painting, and sculpture. Pitkoff holds degrees from Davidson College (BFA Art ’21), and the Fashion Institute of Technology (MFA Illustration ’25). The Brooklynite shared, “When I was presented with the opportunity to do this project, the first thing I looked up was women at Floyd Bennett Field. I’m always interested in highlighting women’s history in the work that I do. And the first thing that came up was the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service). I liked that “WAVES” was a play on a water-based word, and that it had aviation-related history. My grandmother is from England and grew up during World War II, and she always talked about women’s history during the war. So, I felt very connected to the women of this particular time period. I’ve read a lot of historical material, and got to talk to National Parks Service people, who helped me access archived information about the WAVES. These women were parachutists during WWII, wearing wide-legged, bell bottom dungarees. When off the base, the women had to wear skirts, but when on base and on mission, they wore jumpsuits.” Pickoff’s partner, Alexander Pattavina, is an acclaimed organist who composed and performed the music in her “WAVES” installation.
Randy Polumbo
Polumbo is an artist working across sculpture, architecture, and living systems. Based between New York City and Joshua Tree, his practice combines industrial materials, hand-blown glass, metals, salvaged structures, and mycelium to create techno-organic environments that blur the boundary between built and biological worlds. For his installation, he said, “Floyd Bennett is a site that rings a lot of bells for me, because I’m kind of a green amateur mad scientist of sorts, deeply interested in the environmental. Also, since I was a little kid, I loved anything having to do with space travel or aviation. So, the site is a unique mélange of all of my favorite things, and I especially love that it’s been woven together into a national park, and they’re doing this cutting-edge research about protecting eroding shorelines and other conservation initiatives that’s cutting edge, but in a grassroots community-based way. The hangars are in their original state, blue-green glass with a historic patina, where you can see different ages of work. I’m also in the construction business for my day job, and I work on a lot of strange old buildings and unique residences, so just watching how the hangars at Floyd Bennett are being taken care of, I think everything about it is phenomenal and inspiring. So, it’s no wonder why artists are interested in doing things there, from projecting to performing. It’s the beginning of a major gathering place for NYC.
“So, my piece is about Floyd Bennett’s strange metamorphosis from incredible unspoiled nature to an aviation epicenter. From butterflies to birds to little weird worms and beetles to certain native plants—they kind of command the space, but weirdly all peacefully coexist. In my showcase, I try to show a connection between all of those things in a nonspecific artistic way. So, I trust the viewer to make their own assessment. I would love it if kids like my piece because they think it’s a cool cartoon and the visuals are exciting to them. Also, if it makes adults go off in a little reverie thinking about something cool or they have a question… that would be a wonderful outcome for me. I’m open-minded, and just grateful that I get to be an artist at this moment in time and do what I would like to do and that some people seem to be interested. Thank God.”
Brendan Winick
Winick is a NYC-based illustrator and animator, specializing in portraiture, visual journalism, book illustration, and editorial and advertising illustration. By day, he works as a project manager at Richard Solomon Artist Representation, where he deepens his expertise in the illustration industry by managing commissions, client relations, and artist representation. In addition to his industry work, Winnick is a dedicated arts educator, teaching motion design and animation production at P.I. Art Center. Regarding his art installation and love relationship with Floyd Bennett and Jamaica Bay, he shared, “I grew up loving NYC, especially the Rockaways and Jamaica Bay area. I’ve been riding bikes out here since I was a teenager. Exploring Fort Tilden and Dead Horse Bay, and the overall ecological area, weirdly enough reminds me a lot of where I grew up in South Florida in Miami with the Everglades.
“My piece is specifically focused on the birding aspects of Floyd Bennett Field, and the historical aviation connection with bird nature. To me, it’s a similar preserved area like the Everglades, where birds thrive, and there’s shallow waters. It’s one of my favorite types of ecological features. So, I’m so honored to showcase my passion and work in this festival. My piece is mostly depictions of aviator flights and birds. So, when you watch, see if you can pick up on some of the stuff. Each of the bird characters are supposed to embody famous aviators like Amelia Earhart, Douglas ‘Wrong Way’ Corrigan, who is my main character played by a pigeon.”
Camila A. Morales and Armon Naeini: “Biosymphonic Ecologies / Ecologías Biosinfónicas”
Chilean-Canadian Morales is an interdisciplinary artist, designer, educator, and founder of Valé in Far Rockaway. Working at the intersection of art, ecology, architecture, and new media, her practice explores the relationships between coastal environments, community, and storytelling through immersive installations, sound, public art, and participatory design.
Naeini is an Iranian-American creative technologist, artist, designer and educator. He is a professor at the School of Visual Arts and the New York Institute of Technology, where he teaches TouchDesigner, creative coding and HCI to both undergraduate and graduate students.
Morales and Naeini’s collaborative work at the festival, is a large-scale generative projection work that transforms the hangars of Floyd Bennett Field into a living portrait of Jamaica Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. Morales shared, “Our piece looks at the ecology of Jamaica Bay and the Rockaway Peninsula at different scales, from microorganisms in the soils and water to the native plants, birds, marine life, tides, and various ecosystems that shape the landscape. The project started with spending time outside, listening, observing, collecting samples, making field recordings, and documenting what we encountered. We brought those materials back into the studio and used microscopy, sound, environmental data, code, and animation to transform them into the final projection. We wanted the work to highlight how much life surrounds us here in New York City, including things we might walk past every day or that are too small to see. We hope the piece creates a sense of wonder and encourages people to look at the environment around them with a little more curiosity and care. Being part of the festival as a local artist feels especially meaningful to me. I live and work in Far Rockaway, and Jamaica Bay and the Rockaway Peninsula have really shaped the way I think about art and ecology. So much of my work begins with being in this landscape, listening to it, learning from it, and thinking about how we can tell the stories of the places we call home.”
Naeini added, “My entire art practice evolves around a notion or concept called ‘glitch art,’ where I take data, and deconstruct the data that’s presented to me to create evocative visual experiences. That’s been my research. And so Camilla was like, ‘What if we created this juxtaposition between having this really sharp technical digitized aesthetic with organic recordings of the flora and fauna within the physical environment of Floyd Bennett Field?’ I really fell in love with this project to where I could take my digital aesthetic with research, and mesh it with the natural findings that we recorded during our data aggregation throughout the past couple of months working on this project. So, it was a nice clash of my technical side with Camilla’s research and discovery of natural elements in the communal environment.”
The Floyd Bennett Field! Public Arts Festival is Saturday, October 3 at 6 p.m. It begins with dinner. Please bring a meal from home or stop for takeout as food will not be for sale. The show begins at 7:30 p.m. and goes until 9:30 p.m. Bring a blanket or chair. For more information, see: www.jbrpc.org/arts
