Prospect.1’s Treme exhibits feature a handful of intriguing artists. The Jazz & Heritage Foundation offices (1205 N. Rampart St.) and adjoining Gaskin-Southall Mortuary feature New Orleans folk artist Roy Ferdinand Jr. and Chicago collage artist Tony Fitzpatrick. If you’re in the neighborhood, don’t miss the work at the New Orleans African American Museum (1418 Gov. Nicholls St.), which has been beautifully restored. The interior of the home features portraits by the team of Brad McCallum and Jacqueline Tarry. They printed images on linen based on the mug shots taken of blacks arrested during the Montgomery bus boycott. Each canvas is behind a silk screen which mirrors the image and contains the makeshift numbered arrest placard, which in some ways completes the shot but obscures the person.  In one of the back buildings on the property, a video installation by South African artist William Kentridge is one of the more fascinating videos that I have seen in Prospect.1. The video is projected from the ceiling down onto a plain white circle with a glass cylinder in the center. The story seems to spin like a record, but in distorted images, which are then put in proper perspective when one views their reflection in the cylinder. It’s a fascinating combination of music, narrative, video and optical illusion.

The Ogden After Hours music series features a couple of artist meet and greets tonight. Louisiana painter Douglas Bourgeois (Pop Star, pictured) and former-New Orleanian (and current-Baton Rouge resident since Katrina) sculptor Martin Payton have current shows at the museum and will discuss their work. Bourgeois paints in meticulous detail and whether he’s depicting natural scenes, Louisiana musicians or pop cultural motifs, he imbues his canvasses with an eerie luminescence. He created the portrait of Irma Thomas on the 2008 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival official poster. Payton is from the same family as jazzmen Walter and Nicholas Payton. Influenced by sculptor John Scott, Payton is known for minimalist works depicting African animals and mythological figures as well as more abstract works. Early R&R musician King Lloyd Palmer is the musical guest. His appearance is supported by the Ponderosa Stomp Foundation, New Orleans own treasure trove resource and booking entity for early rock and roll and R&B stars, particularly from Louisiana and surrounding states. Tickets $10, free for Ogden members.

Poor old Joe the Plumber can’t afford taxes or tickets. So apparently the only institution in the state of Ohio that has a problem with speed is the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Not every artist at Prospect.1 is going to greet visitors with “Hey, pal, this is my show,” (in a tone more appropriate for “Why are you touching my motorcycle?”). But that’s how I was greeted by Tony Fitzpatrick in his too easy to overlook spot in the funeral home (Gaskin - Southall Mortuary, 1205 N. Rampart St.) next door to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation offices. Fitzpatrick is a Chicagoan who has considered New Orleans second home for roughly 30 years. He says in this video interview that New Orleans also was the site of his last really bad bender. And he has interesting ideas about the bohemian culture of the city. His intensely detailed collages are well worth the visit and incorporate arcane items like old matchbooks and print advertising from the Roosevelt Hotel, the Blue Room and old Creole restaurants.

Prospect.1, New Orleans’ international art biennial, opened on Saturday (Nov. 1) at venues across town. The CAC has a very impressive array of art and installations, from the painting and collage of Trenton Doyle Hancock to a painting referencing the New Orleans Saints by Gaijin Fujita to found-object sculpture by Cuban artist Luis Cruz Azeceta to the exotic “New Orleans Lab” of Chinese artist Cao Fei (who goes by China Tracy in cyberspace, and this is her YouTube channel). The CAC has a full range of approaches from more conventional painting and sculpture to more contemporary and cutting edge installations and video. It’s a good place to start exploring the expo and the wide-open approaches of international art. 

The Lower Ninth Ward is home to a cluster of installations referencing the storm. There’s Mark Bradford’s ark Mithra, classic photos of New Orleans second-line culture at the L9 Center for the Arts, Miguel Palma’s “Rescue Games Project,” which takes the form of a Higgins boat. The swamp mural (pictured) is part of a project at the Tekrema Center for the Arts in which the natural wetlands replace the walls of a home.  

Whether you can’t get enough frights this weekend or you want something to sober you up on Sunday, try watching I.O.U.S.A. It’s the story of our national debt. When the film was set for August release, the scary number was $9.5 trillion. But that was nothing. Now that Wall Street has melted down and $700 bailouts are bandied about as if that money was just sitting in the bank waiting for a rainy day, the debt has risen to $10.5 trillion as of Halloween. Actually that money is sitting in a bank … somewhere else in the world. The United States government borrows more than 20 cents of every dollar it spends. Simply put, that’s not sustainable. Interest on the debt accrues at a rate of almost $4 billion per day. This Sundance Film Festival selection examines the debt, how government fails to confront the problem and how disinterested the public is in the issue. The screening is at 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 2, at Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center. 

  Find out now, 20th Century Fox has already yanked the video from American YouTube.   Our French-speaking readers can find a suitable version after the jump.  Read the rest of this entry »

Just as the international art biennial Prospect.1 starts drawing cultural tourists to the city, state legislation goes into effect making designated areas into official “Cultural Districts.” In those areas, there will be no state or local sales tax on original works of art, and there will be tax incentives for renovation of historic properties. The law goes into effect on Nov. 1.

 

Read the rest of this entry »

I am not sure who this product is directed at. But if you have a house cat that’s a little on edge in these trying economic times, or if you’re short on pet gift ideas with the holidays coming up, or if you have gullible friends, maybe Catabis is right for you. Several strains are available in leaf or bud. For no real reason, I am recommending either Chicken Haze, Mexican Shake or Chronic Pussy.

The Anchorage Daily News came out with an endorsement for Barack Obama. It’s an interesting read, but one that’s sounding familiar as many papers weigh in for the Democrat, including the New York Times, Washington Post and Times-Picayune.  But what the ADN has that these other papers don’t — at least in its online edition — is a great section (front page, scroll down) for readers to post their pictures of moose sightings, bear sightings, wolf sightings, cats, dogs, babies, (all separate categories), tattoos and vanity plates. And here is a page with a montage of readers’ Sarah Palin music videos — you might be surprised how popular RAP is  in Alaska, though you may be able to predict the level of talent.