Float Map
July 2025 Second Friday
Happy Second Friday! Due to the 4th of July falling on the First Friday this month, Knoxville galleries opted to push back their opening festivities until today. I hope you are able to make it out tonight. Here’s the map!
Water and flotation have been in my ether the past few weeks. Breadcrumbs of water and floating related experiences and thoughts landed me at the newly reopened Augusta Quarry in Fort Dickerson Park, where I was surprised by a new policy. The park began a contract with an outfitter company that supplies branded floating tubes for $5/hour; or visitors can borrow a free life jacket. All others with floats are asked to leave or are prevented from using what they brought. The staff said something to the effect of: standard floats are not life-saving devices.
I am curious, though, whether a map can count as a life-saving device. Not this one, perhaps, but other maps? Most definitely. What do we cling to when we feel tired, weak, or small? Maps can help us understand where we are, gain perspective on our scale, and show us how to get where we want to go. They can be comforting and empowering.
So here we are, with this inflatable-ish Second Friday map, made from four damaged and trashed floats, illegally floating in the quarry. The roads feature inserted bike tube valves from popped tubes. The letters on the banners and roads are painstakingly heat-carved or scissor-cut out of the float vinyl. I also made an auxiliary map for the lone Mighty Mud, holding down the wider-Knoxville First/Second Friday opening fort for the summer months.
Check out that beautiful banded water snake checking out the Mighty Mud map!
THE LIST:
The Emporium (5-9) Summer Members Show by many local artists
Arrowmont Gallery (5-9) “July Instructors Exhibition” by J. Leigh Garcia + Kwok-Pong Tso
UTK Downton Gallery (5-9) “Remembering: Resist, Reveal, Reclaim, A Crafting Blackness Exhibition.” Co-curated by Karlota Contreras-Koterbay + Dr. Cynthia Gadsden
Red Gallery (5-9) “Soil and Sky” by Ranee Taylor
Dogwood Arts (5-8) “About Time” by Sarah Shebaro
Rala (6-9) “Artifacts” by Michael Arpino
Mighty Mud (6-9) “Hop Along: Jackalope Editions at 5 Years” by various artists : Muriel Condon, Maggie Connolly, Marcelo Daldoce, Richard Gnann IV, Sarah Elise Hall, Mary Laube, Matt Magee, Josh McDonald, Aaron Noble, Tatiana Potts, Eric Sherwood, Jonpaul Smith, Baxter Stults
Tonight’s Recs:
The Members Show will be a big turnout with lots of great local artists. I am also looking forward to Sarah Shebaro’s work at Dogwood and the Jackalope showcase at Mighty Mud.
Upcoming Exhibitions:
JULY 19TH: “Backyard Art Show” (5pm-Sunset) by Gaby Hurtado-Ramos and Esther S. 📍DM Gaby or I for address :)
The Problem Solving:
In order to make the shapes I needed, I had to cut segments of the floats and reassemble them. I basically needed to sew, but without poking hundreds of tiny holes… so I ended up using a combination of an iron and a wood burner. It was tricky—the iron made folds but wouldn’t usually fuse two pieces well enough, and the wood burner made the strongest seam-bond right before it burned through the vinyl, which would create a hole. It was challenging to do, and I definitely have a number of holes. Getting the valves into the roads was also a feat. I used Epoxy for the first time to seal the valves to the vinyl (worked!) and to seal up the open ends of the roads (did not work!).
Thank-you’s:
Andreas for scavenging floats and bike tubes (thanks also: Two Bikes!), Sarah for digging floats from the garbage, Lucy for adhesive pickup, Chelsie for the water talk and in-progress work share/parallel swimming, and my basement for being shambles but clutch for materials.
See y’all tonight!
—Farkas
Subversive!
Aw yeah!