ART 300 (1)
NEW ORLEANS
“At around three-fifteen in the morning, an American terrorist from Texas, under the banner of ISIS, had plowed down a bunch of pedestrians on Bourbon Street with a Ford F-150 electric pickup truck, crashed, and jumped out shooting. Fifteen people, including the attacker, were dead.”
This almost chilly announcement hit me hard. New Orleans is held in high regard for me. From the first time I visited – in 1975, when the SuperBowl had claimed all the hotel rooms – I felt at home. The warm residents, their creativity, their survival spirit, their music tradition, their unhurried way of life, their often unhealthy but tempting cuisine. All of these traits were confirmed on my subsequent visits.
Hurricane Katrina in 2005 seemed to be the death blow for the city. For nearly 2,000, mostly black residents, it became just that. The Ninth Ward especially suffered.
In 2006, curator Dan Cameron organized an art event in all available exhibition spaces. ‘Prospect 1’ was supposed to get the city back on its feet and promote tourism again.
Naturally, I wanted to be there. The art on display was good, surprising, impressive, emotional. Spike Lee’s documentary, “When the Levees Broke,” painted a chilling picture of the disaster. Knowing him, he did not have a good word to say about the responsible authorities.
Still, I look back on it with mixed feelings. Regardless of the quality, regardless of the nonetheless resurgent black community, I, spoiled, white art lover, had looked at art in parts of the city that had lost out. At the graveyard of Katrina.
(copyright text Rob Perrée)
