Back to the Future

The threatened land of South Louisiana is one of the entities where the frailty of our environment can be physically felt and where Dawn Dedeaux found inspiration for her series MotherShip, a reflection on our planet earth and our future.
Following Aboard the MotherShip part 1: Postulations of Myth and Math which took place at the Centre for the Living Arts in Mobile, AL, the latest exhibition at the Acadiana Center for the Arts, MotherShip 2: Dreaming of a Future Past is displayed in a large space, allowing DeDeaux's work to take its full breath. At first sight, the somber colors give a sense of the prevailing bleak mood. The display can be viewed as a whole installation built from stories told in different media, each occupying a dedicated area like Test Tubes, 2010, related to water contamination and its effect on species, Chimes: Burnt Timber, 2005-2013, made with pieces of burned wood from Dedeaux's own studio or Step Home, 2007, a glowing minimalist sculpture symbol of Katrina's aftermath followed by Falling Junk Space with Shoes, 2013 and Back Pack, 2013, relating to recent terrorist activities carried out through everyday objects. If we feel somewhat touched by the allusions to events that concern all of us, our emotions are stirred by Souvenirs of Earth, 2014, a collection of worn out dusty objects which have lost their function but have gained a symbolic value. An old violin case, a broken toy, damaged photographs, the accumulation of  "things" filled with memories evoke abandonment and loss, allowing melancholy to seep in. Should they be left behind? Should they be part of our future? Questions we had to answer too many times following the Katrina disaster.
Hovering above abandoned farm equipment, rings of metal refer to the now defunct airships Zeppelins. In response to the drought and the subsequent food shortage, MotherShips offer an escape to a few so are the fragile ladders made of charred wood or clear glass spread throughout the exhibition. Wall pieces include figurative portraits like Guardian at the Levee Gate or landscapes like Evangeline, dark digital drawings on metal which heighten the eerie atmosphere reinforced by a few splashes of red, color of fire and drama adding to the apocalyptic vision offered by DeDeaux. Comments along the works help the visitor decipher the symbols: rings for the alliance of man and technology, ladders to reach higher consciousness, horse signaling the end of earthly time and triumph over evil... Our gaze is drawn to the centerpiece, a towering life-size sculpture of a horse perched on a high pedestal, vigorous, dynamic and free. A kind of a conclusion to a stirring exhibition which can be seen from a bird view point looking through the glassed mezzanine.
At the present rate of growth the earth will need to sustain nine billion inhabitants in 2045. DeDeaux brings a sense of urgency, an anxiety born from the numbers and the threat of cataclysms looming over our planet. Future Past resounds like a warning, we already have lost control over our future and there is a sense of inevitability in the artist's gloomy premonitions. Confronted to our powerlessness, her answer is a scenario of escape and abandonment.
A century ago, Futurism was a cry for change, action, filled with enthusiasm as opposed to the recent  statement from the philosopher Félix Guattari: "The future has lost its zest and people have lost all trust in it: the future no longer appears as a choice or a collective conscious action, but is a kind of unavoidable catastrophe that we cannot oppose in anyway."
Is there any hope according to DeDeaux? Is the artist describing realities we choose not to see?

photographs by the author:
Views of the exhibition at the ACA

About the Future

Following the Memory Project, the next theme at the Centre for the Living Arts downtown Mobile is a reflection about the future and more specifically, future possibilities for the Gulf Coast. A magnet for community-wide activities to promote "community building through the arts", the center hosts Futures Project, an ambitious program which includes lectures, debates, film screenings, workshops focused on a monthly topic including "childhood and aging", "home, place and public safety", "environment, climate change, predictions and politics, "education and learning, success and failure", "health, wellness and spirituality", "communication, information, knowledge and wisdom", "art and cultural institutions", "races, class, immigration and ethics", "Mobile and downtown economic development". Among these activities, an exhibition featuring local and international artists is on display for nine months in the 16,000 square foot gallery. The building, located in the bustling downtown near coffee shops, restaurants, parks and my preferred bookstore stands out with its graffiti decorations on the outside walls.

Upon entering the vast space and before getting any visual cues, the visitor is immersed in a chatter of computerized voices. Short sentences about the future fill the air, louder then fading away as one  progresses along a large wall calendar filled with daily messages generated by the search of the word "future" on a computer. The grey wall divided by a grid, each small rectangle covered by a daily printed page with the word "future" in red, the monotonous artificial voices, the printer spewing random quotes, all describe an anonymous, emotionless world where computers override our thoughts, an ominous message delivered by 2X4, a global graphic designer company from New York City.
In sharp contrast across the aisle and further in the gallery, the works from Kenny Scharf, well-known graffiti artist from Brooklyn depict a world filled with bright neon pink, blue, green colors. His installations include Cosmic Cavern inspired by the original cavern located in a Brooklyn basement, site of memorable Day-Glo parties, an old model car from the fifties with kitschy decorations and piles of colored trash. A collection of paintings from the late nineties to early 2000's line up the walls. Lunar landscapes, extraterrestrials, cartoonish renditions of popular themes of science-fiction contribute to an out of space atmosphere, but it seems that Scharf's latest vision of the future goes back to the eighties.
On the way to a dark room where a simultaneous projection of videos on the four walls features Future Tense curated by Tom Leeser from CalArts, the sound installation from Nina Waisman is inescapable. Like a sea-monster with its tentacles, the interactive work generates "sounds from far-flung worlds" when activated by the movements of the visitor, promoting an awareness of new physical boundaries around the body by extending its spatial envelope.
In the background, the Pop Boat from Xavier de Richemont glows in the dark. A model of the battleship USS Alabama, slowly painted with light in front of our eyes, takes patriotic colors when covered with American flags, becomes a memorial to the sailors who served on the ship with the projection of photographs and slowly evolves in a final show of pink azaleas. The French artist is famous for his light shows on the façades of buildings and the display is a model for a project in the Mobile harbor.
Filling a space with red balloons, Candy Chang's installation is a festive sight for a serious project about schools.
Aboard the Mothership Part One: Postulations of Myth and Math, the imaginative work about the future from Dawn DeDeaux brings us to a different world somewhat dark and mysterious introduced by two  portraits, hidden behind heavy medieval masks reflecting the landscape, but hiding the eyes. The media itself , digital drawings on steel reinforces the Gothic warrior look. The display includes also large wall panels printed on metal representing southern landscapes and ladders in glass or burned wood, now iconic objects for the artist, the symbol of escape. A whirling stack of painted chairs climbs to the ceiling where the replica of a horse perched 20 feet above the gallery looks down to its reflection on a piece of Plexiglas. With her great sense of staging, DeDeaux succeeds in creating an enchanted world of fairy tales and an escape from history? the future? reality? disasters?

From Scharf's sci-fi pop-happy future to the uncertain dark age from DeDeaux, a stimulating exhibition to think about.



photographs by the author:

detail of the façade Centre for the Living Arts
detail "Cosmic Cavern", Kenny Scharf, 2013
"The School of the Future", Candy Chang, 2013
View of the exhibition, Dawn DeDeaux

A day at Prospect.2

The day started with a visit at the Longue Vue House and Gardens to look at Brandon Ballengee's installation titled Audubon's Absence. The eco-artist's statement did upset me "Responding to species loss, I cut the birds from historic John James Audubon prints". I had to verify, it is true! The artist did cut out the birds from original prints! The extinct species are now annihilated. The sound from Pasco is also supposed to bring silence instead of the calls from these extinct species. Due to some malfunction, it was not available the day of the visit.

To follow-up this disastrous start, I visited the Old US Mint. The display is sparse compared to Prospect.1, "The Night Club Portraits", 1973, black and white portraits from William Eggleston (1938), a photographer made famous by his color photographs occupy a whole room. A lengthy Gothic video about Mississippi's nightlife from the same artist can be viewed next also photographs from An-My Le shot in New Orleans and Vietnam.

Next (not included in Prospect.2), The Front featured Stephanie Patton's exhibition General Hospital. In her statement, the artist explains how she uses humor to overcome adversity, pain, disease and she succeeds in this endeavor with her soothing soft cushions, pillow-pills. Her one and a half hour video shows how to transform lemons into lemonade. It can be painful to watch and reminds us that life can be arduous. Due to its length, I was not able to watch the whole video, but I assume the lemonade was worth the effort.

At the CAC and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, Prospect.2 and temporary exhibitions intermingle. NOLA Now Part I brings artists from New Orleans who are back (or never left) the city. I noticed the work from Dawn Dedeaux with her preserved but deformed portraits, time can deform memories. On the first floor, Alexis Rockman's large wall canvas depicts the species of the Southern swamps in a dark future. He is well -known for his vision of the world since his exhibition at the Smithsonian in Washington DC last year. Ogden was bathing in Surrealism with the works of two local artists Ersy and Josephine Sacabo, respectively sculptor and photographer.

The afternoon started with one of the highlights of Prospect.2, Sophie Calle 's installation at the Pontalba's house on Jackson Square, a story of her (fabricated) life told with self-deprecating humor. Her possessions are spread around the eighteen century house, left over from her presence, but she is absent. The narratives accompanying the installation could be drawn from cheap airport novels. The Duchess of Pontalba was a strong character who made head ways for females two centuries ago. The artist's vision fails to reach her dimension.

After dark, Dawn DeDeaux's installation brings mystery to the courtyard on Royal in the French Quarter. Goddess Fortuna and Her Dunces In An Effort To Make Sense Of It All brings to life the book from John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces. One can look at the shadows behind the windows on the second floor like a show with ghosts in the courtyard for this very New Orleanian story. It is like plunging in the decor for a movie.
I read the book previously and recognized the crumpled bed of Reilly, the hot dog cart, the novel's characters, but the show can be enjoyed just as a visual pleasure.

Fortuna, a goddess from New Orleans



photographs by the author:

"The Night Club Portraits" William Eggleston, 1973

"Test Tubes. Family Legacy", Dawn Dedeaux, 2011

"Battle Royale", Alexis Rockman, 2011

Julia Street

This week-end was busy in New Orleans for the art lovers. Friday night was the opening of a new exhibition at the Garden District Gallery, titled "Treasures of the Gulf". Among the 18 artists represented, Bill Myers from Ocean Springs did retain my attention with his sculptures. Interesting compositions, well seated (on a pile of fake books usually), they are built of strong materials, but they appear fragile and bring a flavor of nostalgia. Each tells a story.

The same evening, I visited the studio of the sculptor-music composer Christian Van Campen...one week early, his open house is next week.

Yesterday was the first Saturday of the month and the art galleries were opened late for their new exhibitions. At the Arthur Roger Gallery, one room was filled with art from local artists related to disasters...again. The work from Dawn Dedeaux "Broken" 2006-2007, sounds of laments coming out of a wide broken pipe is so timely.

Another work, from Jacqueline Bishop , titled "Tresspass"2003-2004 is premonitory.

The show "Field Recordings" was lighter at the Heriard-Cimino Gallery. In a dark room, the videos from Courtney Egan went through the lifecycle of a flower with "Repercussion", or made the Spanish Moss float on the wall. All these videos require precise synchronisation of the cameras and sometimes sounds.

The action was also in the street, a Jazz funeral for the dead pelicans went by. At the end of the parade, they left behind an installation?...street art?

photographs by the author