Candy Chang book Release Party for Before I Die tonight at Ogden

One of my favorite artist/activists for her work in reviving public space and commentary with engaging visuals. I have followed her work since her NYC Street Vendor visual booklet (which I often use in market trainings across the country)  and when I finally found her own site, realized that I had collected at at least  4-5 other of her projects without knowing they were hers.

I participated in the Before You Die New Orleans project and stopped by often to read new ones.

http://candychang.com/before-i-die-installation-and-book-launch-party-at-the-ogden-museum-in-new-orleans/

Planking suits New Orleans

carpetbagger (pronunciation): kay•kay•prah•jex

carpetbagger: definition (okay its mine but it will do): Someone using malevolent seizure or a well-intentioned but still damaging takeover of a conquered or currently-at-risk culture or its goods.
"To carpetbag": Haphazardly embedding a project (or deliberately superimposing one large out-of-scale one over smaller ones) in order to take away or redirect the resources and services that are meant for the citizens to repair their lives. Once the resources have been eaten (leaving little except doorless houses), the carpetbaggers then move on to new fragile places.

Here's a short timeline:

2009:
The "artist" herself speaks: I fell in love with New Orleans before I came to the city. I met some people at a restaurant in New York and was so captivated by their spirit that I decided I would move to whatever city they were from. And of course that was New Orleans. I caught a train a couple of days (2002 or so from accounts) later landing, hilariously, in the middle of Mardi Gras without the slightest clue of what was going on. The first day I was presented with a Zulu coconut and I thought, “What is this, what is going on here?!” ...
...This said it is also fascinating for people riddled with ambition and drive in that, having been completely destructed, New Orleans is an empty slate for visionaries, enterprisers and builders of dreams.

Sooo, let me get this straight. You met some people in a restaurant, hopped a train and came to New Orleans. Huh.

I can just see it: hand on her Marlo Thomas hat winking at her own reflection in the Saks window.

and got a coconut that first day? why, you lucky thing...
And then you see the chance to work on an EMPTY slate for your own ambition.
right?
okay got it.

so then next...


from her website in 2010:
Life is Art Foundation is dedicated to an ongoing conversation with our neighbors. Through art projects involving the greater social ecosystem, the project exists to cultivate creativity and inspire the hearts, minds, and economy of the St Roch neighborhood and its visitors. Integrated into our spaces is a summer urban farm and children's program. As with the houses, the farm serves as art space and vehicle for community evolution. During summer months, herbs and vegetables are grown with neighborhood children for eating and selling to New Orleans' best restaurants. There is currently no exhibition at Life is Art Foundation St Roch, but programs will resume in 2011. (emphasis added)

Hey, that sounds pretty good. herbs and vegetables, divided between the neighborhood chidren (it's for the kids right?) and the city's "best restaurants".
Huh.
so which is it?
Did any of it even happen?

2011
From Doug MacCash's TP 04/03/2011 article: "She also plans to re-establish the neighborhood garden that once occupied one of the lots. In the more distant future, she’s considering inviting artists to creatively demolish the remaining blighted houses as art performances.
Whatever happens, Kaechele will orchestrate KKProjects’ fate from afar. She said she has spent the last five months in Tasmania, an island state of Australia, and plans to return in April, leaving a director behind to manage the New Orleans site and upcoming exhibitions."

The MORE distant future? wow, I wonder if that even means in this lifetime? (someone check, is she a believer in reincarnation?)

and they wonder why neighbors fight against talk of "green space" and "public art". And why so many of us turned away when she and her group walked in.
Ambition and drive on an empty slate.

Jesus.

Bye Bye. Good luck in new lands. Or maybe good luck is needed for the people who live there.



Full MacCash/TP article:

TP article




.

Let's "attack" blight another way

As much as I hate to refer to cities like Detroit when talking about solutions for New Orleans, once in a while there is a reason to do so.

The thing about Detroit to keep in mind is that it is significantly smaller in square miles than New Orleans. About 37 miles less.
I bring that up because I think many of us think of Detroit as this huge city with out of scale empty factories everywhere. And that is true in some areas, but not all.
So, once again, scale is the key to success and this project shows it by dealing with one street as a project and adding ideas as they go.
Brilliant.

heidelberg photos

website for organization

help save public art

This is a link to an article about neighbors who are fighting city hall. In a city with never ending infrastructure issues, paint on a sidewalk seems like a good resurfacing!
Seriously, the house and sidewalk are amazing and brave; no harm is being done to anyone and instead, we have a couple who are anchoring their block.
Read the article:


StPeterart

Bywater memorial

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. ~Aristotle

A fascinating morning

in lagalou. Biked with co-worker to the Quarter to meet with local non-profit entrepreneur Eric Kugler to discuss a wonderful idea he has to build small decentralized fresh food buying clubs in the 7th ward and beyond.
We met at Cafe Envie, a coffeehouse with a full breakfast menu to discuss and plan.

As we saw Eric sitting outside with his pit bull Sweet Potato, we also saw another Envie patron yelling down the street at 2 men having a heated discussion.
Turns out one of the 2 men was the Grey Ghost, the infamous graffiti coverer, hated by those artists and many property owners as well. GG has been labeled a vigilante by those who are tired of his one man paint slopping over graffiti, and stories have been told of careless work that often disfigures more than the original graffiti. Property owners have argued with him about painting their building, saying they will decide how to handle graffiti when needed. He has been known to argue for his position and then to ignore the pleas to not return to their rescue.
Of course, there are property owners who applaud his work, saying the graffiti is an attack, and GG is just responding with what the artist would find most distateful, and what would discourage them from coming back around.
The Envie patron was waiting for a police cruiser he had called to back up the second man who clearly was asking GG to stop putting grey industrial paint over the graffiti.
The police cruiser came, ran off GG, went. As soon as the cruiser pulled off and GG walked away, the second man came to thank the Envie patron for backing him up. Turns out he works for the city, and has no love for the GG and told us how he explained to GG that he had no right to further disfugure buildings. He called the Envie patron a hero, gave him his card and asked him if he would testify at city hall if needed.
Wow.
That, and a pretty good veggie wrap before 10 a.m.