ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

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"We move on

As the wheel wills; one revolution

Registers all things, the rise and fall

In pay and prices, peregrinations

Of lies and loves, colossal bangs and

Their sequential quiets in quick order. "

—The Age of Anxiety by W.H. Auden (1947)

The Enlightenment framers of American independence understood self-evidence as simple common sense—a basic hardware integrated into our minds—what everybody knows and nobody can deny. Derived from the natural laws of the universe, grounded in time and human faculty, self evident truths make way for unalienable Rights, a ready-made fabric of humanity that connects us as a nation. When we believe wholeheartedly in our commonality we stop asking questions about who We the People are and begin assigning values, laws, and order, which continue to shape this American experiment. Throughout history, periods erupt with the revelation that our common values do not serve, our laws abuse, and the order of our democracy—laid out in the Constitution as justice, tranquility, common defense and general welfare—appears imperfect and ungovernable.

Today, those truths we hold no longer appear common nor self evident, and the anxiety of that rupture cuts to the core of our very being as a nation. Four hundred artists from across the American Gulf South responded to this moment with how they see power manifest in culture, politics, economics, and environment. The works assembled for this exhibition speak to the current paradigm and reflect broadly on the conjuring and churning of our American fever dream. Examinations of citizenship and symbolism, identity, rights, labor, gender, race, family, sexuality, and geography—our deepest intimacies—permeate this presentation of Gulf South artists. The exhibition holds spaces of memorial and grief; pain and absurdity commingle where lands and rights are acknowledged and taken; people extradited and memories recovered are composed along hand sewn and embroidered borders; hints of hope, healing, and catharsis dangle like rosary beads. Revealed in the power of so many artists speaking to what they know is an America shaped by difference where being seen and represented is a necessary step to a more perfect union.

In a letter to his nephew published in 1962, on the hundredth anniversary of President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, James Baldwin reflects on his “well meaning” countrymen. At a time of advancing civil rights and integration, Baldwin describes a “chorus of the innocents” that believe in a shared destiny and common purpose serving all Americans. “Most of them do not yet really know that you exist,” he cautions his nephew. These “authors of devastation,” whose innocence “constitutes the crime,” create and enforce the values, laws, and orders that condition American life. They write the history from their own self-evident revelations. They sustain societal norms with their own self-evident ways and enforce their power with their own self-evident might. “Trapped in a history which they do not understand,” Baldwin’s innocents cannot see how the nation, subjected and free, is of their own making. To this, Baldwin urges his nephew, “we with love shall force our brothers to see themselves as they are, to cease fleeing from reality and begin to change it, for this is your home, my friend. Do not be driven from it. Great men have done great things here and will again and we can make America what America must become.”

EXHIBITION ARTISTS

ABOUT THE CURATORS

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Katrina Neumann

Co-Curator

Director, Private Collection

Katrina Neumann began her career as a visual artist while working in galleries and arts institutions for over 16 years. Neumann is currently works for a Private Art Collection based in New York and Connecticut. Prior to her work at the collection, she has worked for Abrons Arts Center at Henry Street Settlement, Kent Fine Art, Orlando Museum of Art, Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, Museum of Modern Art, Abby M. Taylor Fine Art, Galerie Adler, Galerie Poler, Greater Reston Arts Center (GRACE Gallery), Galerie Europa, and Clarion University Art Gallery. She has founded the startups "Rate My Artist Residency" and co-founded "Rivet"; both are websites that help artists find residency opportunities, funding, and transparency within this niche market. On nights and weekends, she freelances as a graphic designer, web designer, and communications specialist for artists and arts institutions.

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George Scheer

Co-Curator

Executive Director, Contemporary Arts Center

George Scheer is the Executive Director of the Contemporary Arts Center and artist-founder, director, and cultural policy researcher who fosters creative communities at the intersection of aesthetics and social change. George is co-founder and former Executive Director at Elsewhere, an experimental museum and artist residency. He holds a Ph.D. in Communications and writes about arts, cultural policy, urbanization, and place. Other projects include Kulturpark, a public investigation of an abandoned amusement park in East Berlin, and South Elm Projects, a curated series of public art commissions.

Toccarra A.H. Thomas

Curatorial Consultant

Director, The Joan Mitchell Center

Toccarra A. H. Thomas is a media and performance artist, film programmer, and arts administrator. As the Director of the Joan Mitchell Center, she guides and refines the artist residency program, develops related public programs and special projects to connect artists and communities, and oversees the Center’s day-to-day operations.

After obtaining her BA in Cultural Anthropology (Film Studies minor) at Smith College, she went on to earn her Masters in Media Studies at The New School, while also working as an interview facilitator for StoryCorps’ Griot Initiative to record personal narratives of Black Americans that were later archived at The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress and the National Museum of African American History & Culture. Following her time in the field, she served as the program manager at African Film Festival, Inc., where she produced public programs in over thirteen countries in partnership with city parks, community centers, schools, cinemas, and museums that challenged notions of culturally “accessible” content and brought members of the public together in conversation with creative practitioners and art educators from Africa and the African Diaspora. Later, she shifted focus to support the professional development of artists as the NYFA Source Program Associate at New York Foundation for the Arts, where she led workshops and created resources tailored to address the needs of artists at varying stages in their careers. Most recently, she held the positions of inaugural general manager of Pioneer Works Art Foundation and inaugural managing director of SPACE, a contemporary multidisciplinary art organization in Portland, ME.

SUPPORT

This exhibition is organized and presented by the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC), New Orleans. Support for this exhibition is provided by Sydney & Walda Besthoff, The Helis Foundation, and the Welch Family Foundation. This exhibition is also supported by the City of New Orleans through a Community Arts Grant, as well as by a grant from the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Office of Cultural Development, Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, in cooperation with the Louisiana State Arts Council.

ABOUT THE CAC

The CAC is a multidisciplinary arts center that is dedicated to the presentation, production, and promotion of the art of our time. The CAC is a cultural leader. As such, it organizes, presents, and tours curated exhibitions, performances and programs by local, regional, national, and international artists. It demonstrates proactive local and regional leadership by educating children and adults, cultivating and growing audiences, and initiating and encouraging collaboration among diverse artists, institutions, communities, and supporters. Museum admission is free on Sundays for Louisiana residents, courtesy of The Helis Foundation. Children & Students through Grade 12 and under receive free admission courtesy of The Helis Foundation. To learn more about the CAC and stay up to date on upcoming events and exhibitions, subscribe to our email list, below.

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CAC BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Officers

Bryan Bailey

Co-Chair

Gregg Porter

Co-Chair

David Thaddeus Baker

Vice-Chair

Michael R. Schneider

Treasurer

Staci Rosenberg

Secretary

Board of Trustees

Carla D. Arriola
Valerie Besthoff

Jane Cooper

Alison Diboll

Anna Coleman Dunbar
Jonathan Fawer
Nurhan Gokturk

Patrice Bell Mercadel

Ruth Owens

David Patron

Shelby E. Russ, Jr.

Patrick Schindler

Michael Schneider
Robyn Dunn Schwarz
Nathalie G. Simon

Warren M. Surcouf, III

Gretchen Wheaton

Virginia Wise

Leopoldo J. Yanez

Emeritus Trustees

Sydney J. Besthoff

Patricia Chandler

Thomas B. Coleman

Sandra Garrard

Barbara Motley

Jeanne Nathan

Michael J. Siegel

MK Wegmann