DNA Gallery presents
Kissing the gunner’s Daughter
An Interactive Art Installation
by Tom Pearson
an interactive work that features fragments from a ship’s interior, a captain’s log of its travels, and the true tale of a man from Michigan who traded his home for a replica of the Santa Maria.
About the Project
Kissing the Gunner’s Daughter, by Tom Pearson, is an interactive art installation that features fragments from a ship’s interior, a captain’s log of its travels, and the true tale of a man from Michigan who traded his home for a replica of the Santa Maria. The work simultaneously conveys the story of “The Santa Marias,” a traveling band of vaudevillians who find themselves immersed in the burgeoning roadside attraction performance culture of Florida in the Forties.
Kissing the Gunner’s Daughter was originally presented as part of The Drifting Encycliopedia in the Courtyard Gallery at the World Financial Center and subsequently as a larger installation at the DNA Gallery, running from September 9 through November 15, 2010.
The work featured memorabilia and archives of Florida roadside culture as it fits a narrative that follows a family of vaudevillians who travels down the eastern seaboard in the late 1940’s, leaving legends in their wake, to finally settle in St. Augustine. The collection is replete with View Master slides, a captain’s log, show posters and advertisements, insta-photos, costumes, ship relics, and vintage Super 8 film footage from the artist’s family archives (shown in a player beneath the sand).
PROJECT SUPPORT
DNA’s presentation of Kissing the Gunner’s Daughter was funded, in part, by a grant from New York State Assembly member Deborah J. Glick through the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation. The creation of Kissing the Gunner’s Daughter, as part of The Drifting Encyclopedia, was originally presented by Arts World Financial Center and made possible, in part, by the River To River Festival. Additional support for the work came from Materials for the Arts/New York City Department of Cultural Affairs/Department of Sanitation, The Lucky Star Foundation, and by Third Rail Projects with support from individual and institutional donors.