*Red Grooms, Mimi Gross, and The Ruckus Construction Co.: Excerpts from "Ruckus Manhattan"* brought two surviving elements of the legendary 1975–77 installation back into public view for the first time in more than thirty years. The original *Ruckus Manhattan* opened at Marlborough Gallery in 1976 as a 6,400-square-foot "sculptural comic book" of urban life—a sprawling, walk-through satire of New York City built from glued cardboard, welded steel, paint, plaster, fabric, and mechanical devices, made by Grooms and Mimi Gross with more than twenty collaborators in The Ruckus Construction Co. The two pieces on view: *Dame of the Narrows* (1975), the Museum's own towering, rocking version of the Staten Island Ferry—last seen publicly in 1994—set against a mural of the harbor, visitors invited to board; and *42nd Street Porno Bookstore* (1976), a new collection addition, on view at the Brooklyn Museum for the first time. Together they captured what the original work was after: the chaos, corruption, sexuality, and sheer comic energy of 1970s New York.
Year: 2025
Clients: Brooklyn Museum
Category: Exhibition