In Brooklyn, Pigeons Light Up the Sky

In the artist Duke Riley’s project “Fly by Night,” he sets two thousand homing pigeons, outfitted with L.E.D. lights, into motion. Riley’s objective? For people simply to notice the birds, the people, and the city that surrounds them. Riley directs the pigeons while standing high on the deck of an aircraft carrier in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The birds dip and dive against the backdrop of Manhattan, a place that once was a haven for pigeon fanciers, but where the tradition has mostly died out. In homage, Riley brings us “Fly by Night,” and, for an evening, the gaze of most everyone in the audience is transfixed overhead.