South Beacon Firetower hike, Beacon /  by Liesl Pfeffer

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Breakneck Ridge, Beacon, NY
October 2015

We hiked up Mount Beacon to the firetower, a steep and very rocky trail with incredible views of Beacon, the Hudson River and the surrounding valley. The trail is a series of switchbacks alongside an old incline railway track, which goes past the remains of the brick building that housed the machinery for the railway, and up to the firetower. I complained quite a lot (that's how I hike) (it was really rocky) (it made my feet hurt!) (it took hours) but the view from the top was rewarding and so was the chocolate Adam brought for me to eat when we rested half way up and the beer we had when we got back down. Ummm, I'm a baby.

City Island, Bronx /  by Liesl Pfeffer

City Island, Bronx, NY
November 2015

Afraid that soon it would be too cold for day tripping, in early November we went on a little adventure up to City Island in the Bronx. It's been on my list of things to do in New York for oh... four years. City Island is a small island (one mile wide and one and a half miles long) with a ship building past and a sleepy old town feeling (you really don't feel like you're in NYC anymore. But you are!) It takes about an hour and a half to get there from Brooklyn (two trains and a bus) so I guess that why it took us a while to get around to visiting. 

On our walk down the main street of the island, we found two church thrift stores. I bought an amazing boat themed sweater for $2 and Adam bought a new-looking pair of Doc Martens for $5. We trawled through a couple of nautical-junk filled antique stores (Nicolas bought small glasses for 50c apiece) and then ended up at the main attraction, Johnny's on the water, at the southern end of the island. We went for the seafood but we stayed for the pina coladas. This place is a feast for the eyes as well as the tummy, with old school signage, baskets of fried seafood and a seagull-filled patio area, and cafeteria tables where leather clad bikers sit alongside old ladies drinking daiquiris. It is as excellent as it sounds. 

Better Homes and Gardens /  by Liesl Pfeffer

Better Homes and Gardens is a three person show of new work by visual artists Teresa Christiansen (USA), Emily Hartley-Skudder (New Zealand) and Liesl Pfeffer (Australia). Each artist has a practice which considers reality and artifice, creating representations of natural or manufactured environments through different media, and all using photography as an integral aspect of that process. These artists create work that is playful and enchanting, inviting sustained engagement through subtle indicators of uncanny tensions in the surface of their work.

Opening Saturday, July 11th from 4-7pm
Exhibition continues until July 25, 2015

chashama 461 Gallery
461 W 126th St.
Harlem, NY

More information and opening hours on the chashama website.

RSVP on Facebook

 

Image: Wassaic, New York, USA copyright © 2015 Liesl Pfeffer

Chipmunk Hollow /  by Liesl Pfeffer

Chipmunk Hollow, NY
December 2014

A place with a silly name where I spent the weekend for an office holiday party. It snowed and snowed, as it seemed to do all winter in New York. The surface of the lake froze and I tried to step on it because I have never walked on a frozen lake but the ice broke and my shoe was drenched with cold, cold water. Still learning lessons in America.