My name is Z Behl, and together with artist Kim Moloney, and 7 other women, I’m leading a 5 week female-powered canoe expedition and art project called The Mule’s Passage, tracing the entire 350-mile length of the Erie Canal in August 2026.
Our work blends environmental history, indigenous context, and the reclamation of women’s labor into a single long-form journey. Retracing the old towpaths we will embody the mule, the myth, and the machinery that built America’s industrial dream– while reimagining the woman’s body as both engine and storyteller in the landscape of American labor.Z and Kim copy.jpg5.06 MB Z Behl (b. 1985) is a New York–based visual artist working across sculpture, performance, and film. Her work examines labor, power, and myth through physically demanding, research-driven projects that place the body in dialogue with industrial systems and landscape. She has exhibited at museums such as MOCA Tucson, Mana Contemporary, the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, and CAC New Orleans. Her practice is known for ambitious, durational works that merge endurance, craft, and storytelling. She will undergo this paddle with Kimberly Moloney (b. 1987), artistic collaborator and Union Ironworker. Behl grew up competing as a child paddler and won the Germantown Canoe Race on the Roeliff Jansen-Kill in 1999.Mule's Passage Overview (1).jpg102.02 KB INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERS
These committed partners provide regional visibility and access to audiences along the canal corridor. Their outreach will amplify our message.
Everson Museum of Art, NY (Presents Exhibition about Canoe Trip in 2027)
Erie Canal Museum, NY- Supporting the Project through Educational Workshops led by the artist with local Syracuse community
Cornell University: Submerse NY; Using Art for Flood Resilience and Community Education (Supporting a Sculpture of a Glass Canoe created by the Artists at Guy Park Manor, a site at Lock E11 that flooded in Hurricane Irene and has since been renovated)Mule's Passage Overview (2).jpg88.89 KB
August 3rd -Begin the 35 day paddle, averaging 6 hours a day and camping along the canal.
October Artist’s workshop will invite public to share in the sculpting of concrete barges in the Erie Canal Museum.
April 2027 - Exhibition at Everson Art Museum opens to additional press, social media campaigns and a secondary opportunity to publicize the journey and tell the story of the Expedition.
Combined partner platforms represent hundreds of thousands of engaged followers across the arts, outdoor recreation, Canal Historians.
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