Creative Time Extends Duke Riley’s ‘Fly By Night’

Creative Time and the Brooklyn Navy Yard have announced that they will be extending Duke Riley’s performance involving pigeons, Fly By Night, through June 19. The project, which has been sold out since it opened and currently has a waitlist of 40,000 people, will be adding three more performances to its schedule.

During each performance, an enormous flock of trained pigeons carrying small LED lights flies across the East River at Riley’s signal. The birds originate from makeshift coops on the Baylander, a decommissioned naval aircraft carrier moored outside the Brooklyn Navy Yard, an homage to the days when the U.S. military used homing pigeons as a means of communication on naval vessels.

Riley has stated that this project honors the antiquated practice of pigeon fancying, popular at the turn-of-the-century when most apartments in New York kept pigeon coops on their roofs.