Public Art and Publications
May 26, 2014
As summertime approaches, some serious catching up is in order.
A couple of my public art pieces are currently out on the streets if you’re strolling The Quarter or CBD:
A collaboration with Debra Howell and 48 other artists, VESTIGES/Trinitas, is on view at US.IS (Urban Sidewalk Installation Space) 441 Gravier at Magazine Street and will be up at least through January, 2015. Assemblagist Jimmy Descant currently has work up there as well.
Imprint: A Call to Disarm, an elegy in the form of gunshot victims’ obits, continues to hang in the vestibule windows of my studio building, Borenstein Galleries at 511 Royal Street. Robert Boyd wrote a fun blog entry in his The Great God Pan is Dead telling of his tracking down info about this work which he ran into during his trip to New Orleans. It is a typical small world story of this place along with a newcomer’s take on the art underbelly he encountered.
Latin for Crab, a group show under the sign of Cancer last summer at The Front in the St. Claude Arts District, considered the female body- its armor, its flesh, bound, determined, embodied- from perspectives of illness, mortality, and recovery. Works in the show derived from artist responses to their own or close associates’ illnesses and included some of my Offering Blocks, featuring the work of Pinky Bass, Heidi Kumao, Sarah Cusimano Miles, Karen Edmunds, Monica Zeringue, and Lee Deigaard who also curated.
2013 was a special year as the Arts Council of New Orleans gave me a Community Arts Award and my work Salle des Pendus was included in the latest purchases for the City Art Collection for fire stations and first responders’ venues. These are two honors for which I am deeply grateful.
Congrats to Sophie Brechu-West, Gallery Director, on the publication of 571 Projects: The First Three Years, a catalogue celebrating and documenting its tenure at 551 West 21st Street. This gorgeous book is now available. It clocks in at 232 pages, 11 x 13 inches hardcover, with beautiful full-color images of works by all the artists. It is great to be included alongside: Lindsey Brown, Leah Durner, Sandra Elkind, Liz Engelhardt, Brian Fekete, Sally Gil, Melora Griffis, Tatiana Istomina, Jimmie James, Dorothy Simpson Krause, Noah Landfield, Laurel Lueders, Malcolm Moran, Nathan Schiel and Julie Tremblay. Please click on the links below to order the catalogue:
571 Projects: The First Three Years Hardcover & Ebook
Joined by my fellow instigator and guest editor of a special issue of TDR aka The Drama Review, Kevin McCaffrey, we gathered a collection of articles, interviews, and photographs representing post-Katrina New Orleans where creative artists took responsibility for remembering the disaster and re-visioning the city. It is a collective, intimate glimpse into the still emerging effort to think through the past and envision the future of art and performance here in New Orleans. We were joined by contributing writers Carol Bebelle, Anne-Liese Juge Fox, Rachel Carrico, and Catherine Michna along with many of the artists written about for their ongoing work in NOLA including artists of: ArtSpot Productions, Ashe´ Cultural Arts Center, Junebug Productions, Mondo Bizarro, and New Noise. Contributor Catherine Micha thoughtfully wrote about the process and product in her blog entry, TDR: New Orleans: It’s About the Listening. I believe the issue is sold out; however, you can access the articles online via these two links, which detail its contents. ARCHIVE and MIT Press:
We’re delighted that Kevin’s No One Ever Went Hungry documentary on Cajun Food traditions then and now will be featured in a summertime New Orleans festival in Nanterre, France, just outside of Paris. Others participating in the festival are the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, The Trio (George Porter Jr., Johnny Vidacovich, June Yamagishi), The Treme Brass Band, Quintron & Miss Pussycat, Nicky Da B, Rusty Lazer. Other films that will be screened are: “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” “Trouble The Water”, “Belizaire,” and more.
More info will be posted here. The next blog entry will be sure to report on our return residencies at Maison Gai Saber and to rejoin our collaborators, The Arpins, in Pennabilli, Italy, where the city street signs announce its friendly attitude to street artists!
Have a great summer!