Struggling to Recover : Creativity in the Gaps and Margins

MARIA T. BRODINE

As an ethnographer currently conducting research in New Orleans, I use my own lived experience and role as curator to explore the way in which Ethnographic Terminalia 2010: New Orleans, Art Spill: Disaster, Art, Activism, and Recovery, and other American Anthropological Association (AAA)–sponsored exhibitions entered ongoing local conversations about boundaries, resistance, recovery, and social action in the post-Katrina era. Taking the position that the exhibition may work as a kind of ethnographic experimentFinvolving collaboration and agitation between various actorsFI build on Shannon Dawdy’s use of archaeological taphonomy to speculate on the role of disruptive curatorial projects in the region’s chronic, ongoing post-disaster recovery process. [art, borders, disaster, exhibit, methodology, New Orleans]

Movements the so-called ‘‘stranger effect’’ still does not restrict the practice of ethnography to the discipline of anthropology, he theme of the American Anthropological Associ- and rather invites us to consider whether insider-ethnog- ation’s (AAA) 109th Annual Meeting, ‘‘Circulation,’’ raphers also do cultural work by agitating, ‘‘making the T invited us to ‘‘think across boundaries, whether strange familiar and the familiar strange’’ by reversing those are boundaries organizing phenomena we seek to what is ‘‘other’’ or ‘‘outside.’’ I submit that Ethnographic describe and explain, boundaries within and across disci- Terminalia, and similar exhibitions, provide an experi- plines, or boundaries among anthropologists or other mental opportunity to explore how cultural work is 2 social groups . . . To turn our attention to zones of performed through the agitation of and around borders. encounter, conjunctions and liminal passages’’ (Heller Olcese has said that a noninstrumental understanding of 2009:16). Recent work in anthropology has exposed the art relies on a recognition that art ‘‘is itself the medium of way in which borders are often creative, highly contested action’’ (2009:5), one that can autonomously produce so- 3 sites of practice and knowledge production in everyday cial change. If ethnography is also a medium of action life.1 Borders have also proven to be excellent sites from (Basu and MacDonald 2007; Latour 1999), the question is which to view architectures of power, because state or in- perhaps less about where art and anthropology intersect, stitutional authority often relies on keeping borders rigid. and more about the relationship between cultural work (of Extending the concept of borders beyond the geographical many types) and social change. definition, then, we can view disciplinary boundaries as similarly contested sites. Very recent work on ‘‘art’’ and ‘‘anthropology,’’ or the anthropological method ‘‘ethnog- New Orleans: Geographies of Uncertainty raphy,’’ have begun to examine how the collaborative and Risk process of ‘‘writing culture,’’ or doing cultural work, is not necessarily a disciplinary effort. To put it another way, the As Heller pointed out, New OrleansFor NOLA, as it is recognition that ethnography relies on dialectical ex- often affectionately called by locals and in social me- changes, circulations, and assemblages and is a ‘‘form of diaFwas a particularly apt location to explore borders: storytelling,’’ rather than some ‘‘formalized knowledge’’ ‘‘The boundary between river and sea, between water (Taussig 2008), emphasizes the fact that the main differ- and earth, is shifting and unclear. The circulation of ence between art and anthropology lies in training, people and other living organisms, of material things, institutional recognition, and the requirements of author- and of ideas in such zones of passage constitutes some of ship. Michael Taussig’s assertion that ethnography relies on the central social and physical processes of concern to all

Visual Anthropology Review, Vol. 27, Issue 1, pp. 78–93, ISSN 1058-7187, online ISSN 1548-7458. & 2011 by the American Anthropological Association. DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-7458.2011.01082.x. Struggling to Recover New Orleans BRODINE 79

kinds of anthropologists, historically and in the present’’ resources and struggle to define what constitutes legal- (2009:16). Indeed, the tension between water as a life- ity, public space, and access. giving force and water as a dangerous presence, and the As if answering Louis Armstrong’s croon, ‘‘Do you state of borders themselves as ‘‘zones of passage,’’ is ev- know what it means to miss New Orleans?’’ various in- ident in daily life. New Orleanians are experts at living terlocutors struggle to express NOLA, what it means to with this tension, at living within contested, fragile, and be a New Orleanian, why the place is important to save, at times oppressive borders, and with the knowledge that and why it is in danger in the first place. Armstrong’s it is waterFand the process by which water circu- popular cry is at once nostalgic and plaintive, a desire for latesFthat will ultimately sustain or devastate the recognition from outsiders (or colonizers, including the region.4 It is in this climate that the questions raised by United States) who would marginalize New Orleans, as Ethnographic TerminaliaFregarding borders and their well as a call to locals to ‘‘other’’ those who have not endingsFare not only relevant, but also stand to be in- experienced New Orleans or who would criticize New formed and revised by expert residents who deal with Orleanians for living in, and returning to, a delta be- these questions in an everyday capacity, and by the sought with subsidence, high crime, perpetual disasters, many creative works that deal in some capacity with and a host of other difficulties. In this vein, messages these questions, including street art and tagging prac- about ongoing trauma, violence, and a history of tices ( 2010; The Independent 2010, personal colonization and neglectFand the need for recoveryF communication). The November conference in New are prolific. Orleans definitely brought circulation, principally I was drawn to these kinds of works through my mediated by artworks and innovative networks of current ethnographic research, which follows the history exhibitions and performances.5 Gallery and exhibit of the as a colonial technology and explores the spaces (shotgun houses, warehouses) presented them- reconstruction of flood protection technologies in the selves as particularly inviting liminal spaces where the post-Katrina space. I conduct participant-observation amorphous undefinable worlds of art and anthropology with various stakeholders involved in defining and con- could play in conversation with contested and ambigu- structing flood protection, including engineers, public ous spaces. Meanwhile, the New Orleans tradition of officials, and activists. It was the ‘‘activism’’Fin the hosting ‘‘art walks’’ and, arguably, highly participatory form of marches, public demonstrations, social media, street festivals and processions facilitated the movement and various visual artsFthat led me into the world of participants and patrons, so that Ethnographic Ter- of performances, galleries, installations, exhibitions, minalia 2010: New Orleans found itself involved in an and street or ‘‘public’’ tagging and signage. I also found ongoing local conversation about the role of perfor- it necessary to explore the vast amount of work within mance, demonstration, and creativity in social action.6 the so-called ‘‘Katrina genre,’’ so named because of the NOLA is a city surrounded by and floodwalls. sheer number of films, books, poetry, and more that As such, it is perhaps no surprise that these and other emerged in direct response to the event and its after- walls often become canvasses, and as a result one of the math. In fact, much of this work helped to define Katrina most striking aspects of the city is its varied and prolific as an ‘‘engineering disaster’’ rather than a natural one by street art.7 In addition, NOLA is divided into a number communicating the findings of engineering reports and of proud and distinguished neighborhoods, several of other studies, revealing the experiences of residents them identified as well-established or up-and-coming during the aftermath, and directly challenging assump- ‘‘historic and cultural districts,’’ the official designation tions found in mainstream media reports. Other works of which influences the ability of residents, entrepre- filled in gaps in governmental infrastructure; for exam- neurs, artists, and organizations to obtain funding and ple, in the absence of street signs in 2005 and 2006, a other kinds of support from art collectors, organizational group of public artists called NOLA Rising painted and funders, investors, public officials, and private sponsors. hung colorful, welcoming ones. Given the prevalent role The panorama of the NOLA ‘‘art scene,’’ from the street of the arts not only as a voice of ‘‘the public’’ but also as to the museum, is thus a hive not only of productionFof a public service, it seemed necessary to further explore ideas and objectsFbut also of struggle and controversy, art as a ‘‘medium of action’’ (Olcese 2009:5) from the as artists and residents alike compete for limited perspective of local actors and by interacting with the

Maria T. Brodine is a Ph.D. candidate in Applied Anthropology in the Department of International and Transcultural Studies at Columbia University Teachers College. She is currently conducting research on the post-Katrina reconstruction of flood protection and coastal restoration in New Orleans, . 80 VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY REVIEW Volume 27 Number 1 Spring 2011

works themselves as autonomous agents that affect exhibitions, various cultural workers and their works are change (Basu and MacDonald 2007; Delicath 2004; ‘‘brought into relation with one another with no sure Fishman 2010). sense of what the result will be’’ (Basu and MacDonald It often seems that the real challenge in New Orleans, 2007:4), drawing on cross-disciplinary experimental if one is concerned with art as a discipline, is to determine practices to produce ‘‘unlikely assemblages’’ (9) and the difference between an artist and a resident. As NOLA encouraging collaboration and exposure of process. Rising founder and local artist Rex Dingler (2011) wrote: New Orleans is a city of artists; whether we’re crafting Art Spill: Disaster, Art, Activism, and Recovery a song, painting a scene, cooking a meal or delivering a mule cart full of shit in a courtroom. We are a dy- Ethnographic Terminalia 2010: New Orleans performed namic people, no matter how you spin the story or a unique role in the milieu of offsite events taking place we’ve proven it with our resilience through good during the conference. Among the exhibitions, it was the times and bad. . . . There is no shame in New Orleans only one featuring ethnographers, or artists trained as to say you celebrate both felicity and misery, as they ethnographers, who use art to conduct research or to are twin mistresses who court you just the same.8 present results. Other exhibitions, including the Ethno- Indeed, many self-proclaimed artists and other graphic Terminalia– and AAA-sponsored offsite event cultural workers engage reflexively in the analysis and Art Spill: Disaster, Art, Activism, and Recovery, featured reification of NOLA as an ‘‘artistic’’ or bohemian city, a variety of what I would call ‘‘cultural workers,’’ in- a status constructed in part through identification with cluding (mostly local) artists, activists, documentarians, a continuous state of trauma and struggle for recovery. and scientists whose work could be considered in some This may in some way be a retaliation to, and appropri- part ethnographic but who, for the most part, do not ation of, a larger exotization of New Orleans as a wield the term. Thus, Ethnographic Terminalia 2010: licentious, rebellious place due to its unique history as a New Orleans can be seen as a research-driven, experi- French colonial, African and Caribbean, African Ameri- mental project which, brushing up against conversations can, predominantly Catholic city (see Dawdy 2008; happening in the vibrant city of New Orleans, hopefully Dawdy and Weyhing 2008). Nowhere is this more evi- performed some ethnography of its own and generated dent than the local appropriation of the fleur de lis, some new insights on the topicFthat is, the relation- originally a symbol of French governance that was im- ship between ethnography, art, and engagement, with ported on the branded bodies of French criminals an emphasis on the anthropological and disciplinary (Sublette 2008:52), and which now appears in the form origins of ethnography. Art Spill emerged as a comple- of voluntary brands (tattoos) to signify local pride, re- mentary and contrasting exhibition, one which incor- silience, and defiance (Otte 2007). This local sense of porated a range of local actors around similar themes, pride and solidarity around the construction of NOLA as but which was more dramatically organized around the a marginal place may be what enables it to function as a principle of activism and social action. factory of creativity. Visitors are often struck by the While helping to plan Ethnographic Terminalia availability and ubiquity of live music, street performers, 2010: New Orleans, I encountered several local actors parade life, and other forms that depend on very little who wanted to explore creative works that explored the money and a great deal of participation. The striking post-Katrina experience, the British Petroleum (BP) oil beauty and range of forms associated with this hive of spill of 2010, and commonalities between the two disas- activity is perhaps, in part, a function of the twin mis- ters. Collaborators also wanted to host a fundraiser for tresses Dingler spoke of: felicity and misery. In many local coastal watchdog groups Defenders of the Coast conversations, I have heard both residents and visitors and NOLA Emergency Response. As we secured a loca- struggle to define NOLA with difficult words like love, tion, we decided that one-half of the home, culture, and magicFterms that vibrate with a would be devoted to an auction, while the other half companion sense of urgency. In a recent conversation would host an anthropological exhibition complement- with artist Crista Rock, I mentioned my frustration with ing the Ethnographic Terminalia–sponsored AAA ‘‘Inno- trying to describe the visceral experience of NOLA.9 She vent’’ known as Art Spill. These included a range of responded rhetorically: ‘‘How do you do a clinical anal- professional and nonprofessional works, including ysis of magic?’’ Given the limitations involved in public demonstration signs and folk art used by the description, exhibitions emerge as an experimental, in- Krewe of Dead Pelicans, a group that formed in response herently visceral and creative way of engaging with art- to the BP oil disaster.10 I also organized an AAA-spon- works as social agents in NOLA and beyond. Through sored offsite panel featuring various cultural workers Struggling to Recover New Orleans BRODINE 81

who, though they officially work outside of the disci- New Orleans. These signs were blank white pages painted pline of anthropology, all engaged in transgressive with black spots and the words ‘‘Everywhere on the coast interdisciplinary work and applied some degree of this oil is real.’’ For Art Spill, Dingler pasted layers of ethnographic method. While I was branded as ‘‘curator’’ these pages on pieces of cardboard cut in teardrop shapes for this part of the exhibition, the curation process was a of different sizes. These he strung in a line on the wall collaborative one. In most cases, participants performed with spray paint dripping down around them in the site-specific installations or played a major role in manner of oil. On another wall, he hung a copy of a organizing and hanging their works. While it is impos- poem called ‘‘Life After the Storm (October 2, 2005).’’12 sible to deal with the contributions of all participants Rock’s installation featured posters she had printed for here,11 I will highlight a few that were extremely site the purpose of public display. The posters bear an over- specificFin that they interacted with the exhibition sized image of a baby crying tears of oil, accompanied space and were therefore not reproducible in the same by the message ‘‘The Earth is bleeding. BP made $292 formFand which emerged directly from the use of billion last year alone. When will we change? When is it public spaces as performative or exhibitionary venues. enough?’’ Dressing up as a city worker, Rock removed Ro Mayer, founder of the Krewe of Dead Pelicans, ads from bus stop benches and replaced them with these made one of the site-specific installations by filling one posters. One of these installations remained unmolested half of a room with a wake for the Gulf of Mexico. A life- for several months, and was only recently removed, sized female figure, which was used to represent the Gulf along with the entire bench, in the midst of a street repair during the original Krewe procession, lay in a coffin. She project. For the Art Spill installation, Rock taped two informed me that as it occupied the second room of the posters to the wall alongside framed photographs of house, it was organized in the style of a household wake other street installations. She spray-painted black in New Orleans. Above the funereal arrangement, the around the edge of each of these works, including the American flag hung upside down, appropriating a mili- framed ones, marking the wall itself as part of the work tary symbol of mourning. From the folds of the flag and creating the effect of oil dripping around the prints. emerged a demonstration sign featuring an oiled peli- She then signed the wall in a tag-style signature. Inter- canFa parody of the Louisiana State flag, on which the estingly, Rock’s posters appeared on either side of a work pelican appears as the state bird. Katrina tarps symbol- by Dawn DeDeaux, called ‘‘Mold in Black and Green.’’13 ized the ocean, rippling across the floor around the Together these works presented a visual continuity coffin stand. Flowers and decorated umbrellas were through color and shape, generating a conversation and placed around the base of the stand. Visitors were en- contrast between materials and styles of representation. couraged to bring more flowers, photographs, and other While DeDeaux’s work appeared in various locations offerings to the wake. This arrangement was part of an throughout the house, this particular piece appeared assemblage of costumes and objects used in the proces- surrounded and challenged by Rock’s more interven- sion, including a male skeleton figure representing BP. tionist work. At the same time, the similarities in content I placed religious iconographic works by artist Lynda were highlighted: the only explicit clue that DeDeaux’s Frese in the same room, in order to highlight the tran- piece was a post-Katrina, pre-oil disaster work was in the scendent aspect of the act of memorialization and title of the work itself. DeDeaux’s work was most effec- mourning, and to further augment the impression of the tive at evoking elusive and visceral connections between installation as a room in someone’s home, where one the two disasters, particularly through the ambiguous might find such pictures on the wall around the wake. but suggestive use of colors and materials. These works The room itself was homey, lit not by gallery lights, but may have demonstrated the effectiveness of more subtle with ordinary 60-watt bulbs in a ceiling fan. This drew approaches to agitation, especially when in conversation attention to the location’s history as a home. with more strident forms. The exhibition also included site-specific installa- These and other works demonstrate how the exhibi- tions by NOLA Rising artists Rex Dingler and Crista tion may facilitate surprising and somewhat accidental Rock. Both of these installations were based on public conversations about subjects like expertise, the effec- and street works these artists had constructed in re- tiveness of various types of art, disciplinary judgments, sponse to the oil spill. While they could not reproduce and the accountability of artists who seek to engage in their public works, their interaction with the exhibit social transformation. It is notable that both Ethno- space produced new, equally ephemeral work, involving graphic Terminalia 2010: New Orleans and Art the use of nonreproducible materials like spray paint. In SpillFas well as the nearby exhibitions hosted by response to the oil spill, Dingler pasted many signs on SWARM: Multispecies Salon III and Barrister’s telephone poles and other highly visible public places in GalleryFhosted many works that traditionally would 82 VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY REVIEW Volume 27 Number 1 Spring 2011

not belong in gallery settings. At Du Mois and Barris- and damaged properties by paying liens and fines to City ter’s, Ethnographic Terminalia 2010: New Orleans Hall, then transforming them into businesses and hosted artistic works put together by anthropologists various kinds of ‘‘alternative’’ spaces (personal commu- who actively challenge the discipline’s emphasis on the nication). OthersFlike my Art Spill collaborators Mike conference presentation and the scholarly publication as Kilgore and Ro MayerFreclaim trash and ambiguous the primary modes of scientific expression. Art Spill spaces as satirical art, sometimes founding grassroots hosted a motley assemblage of various actors interested movements in the process. in social action, disaster, and recovery. SWARM: Multi- Ethnographic Terminalia 2010: New Orleans, Art species Salon III brought together a range of human and Spill, and numerous other curators and curatorial col- non-human actors, exposing anthropological trends lectivesFboth local and otherwiseFtook advantage of around multispecies to the public and providing spaces these kinds of transformations of trash-to-exhibitions for the species, and things, themselves to generate new during the 2010 AAA meeting. ET’s flagship exhibition conversations. All of these events disrupted not only was held at Du Mois, a new gallery founded by my the AAA conferenceFby drawing scholars and visitors landlords, who evacuated during Katrina. Upon return- offsite and welcoming the public to conference ing from their ‘‘hurrication,’’ Jean-Paul Villere and activitiesFbut also the local houses, warehouses, and Renee Deville bought and renovated several severely galleries we used, forcing a critical engagement with the damaged properties, including my current residence social role and accessibility of the gallery space as well (which dates back to around 1850). Later, they trans- as the curatorial process itself. formed an old shotgun into a gallery called Du Mois. Du Mois is located in a historic business district called the Freret Corridor, which was dramatically affected by The Shotgun Houses: Du Mois and Rue Katrina and suffered from widespread blight for years St. Denis after the event. is more than just a business corridor: it serves as a main avenue bisecting the Shannon Dawdy has discussed taphonomyFencom- ‘‘Uptown’’ area between St. Charles Street and Claiborne passing the accidental, invisible, purposeful, human, and Avenue, connecting with the historic nonhuman processes through which the archaeological African American Central City, and therefore forming a record is createdFas a concept particularly useful for nexus of Uptown contested boundary lines and a milieu describing ‘‘the temporal, spatial, and . . . material of complex social and economic interactions. Du Mois, dimensions’’ involved in the ‘‘making of culture’’ with its natively bright exterior colors, sharp white (2006:719). This attention to the ‘‘construction of history walls, and meticulously renovated and maintained and . . . the formation of the ‘ethnographic present’’’ by interior space, broadcasts its involvement in various an assemblage of actors doing cultural work is important locals’ project to ‘‘revitalize’’ the Freret Corridor as a to our understanding of how storytelling becomes social business district. action through its interaction with spatiality and the Art Spill, meanwhile, took place in an old double materialization, memorialization, and transformation of shotgun in the St. Claude Arts District. Because the house memory and experience. In the wake of Katrina, New used to be known as Rue St. Denis, I will call it that for Orleans was left with what locals call ‘‘the jack-o-lantern the purpose of this article. St. Claude Avenue leads from effect,’’ referring to the gap-toothed condition of neigh- the lakeside corner of the French Quarter, through the borhoods where only some people were able to return Marigny and Bywater neighborhoods, and into the and rebuild while others remained in diaspora. In the Lower Ninth Ward.15 Like many main avenues in New years since Katrina, the widespread problem of blight Orleans, St. Claude is often referenced as a socioeco- has resulted in an increase in squatters’ settlements and, nomic border between neighborhoods (main streets and in some cases, tragic loss of life and historic structures.14 highways, as historically ‘‘high ground,’’ often perform As Dawdy has pointed out, people in post-disaster situ- this role throughout the Mississippi Delta). The owner of ations have a heightened reflexive awareness of their Rue St. Denis, Steven Fisher, owns properties throughout relationship with landscapes, objects, and space. Recov- the United States and routinely makes reciprocal ar- ery itself involves a process of ‘‘moving around debris, rangements with artists and other ‘‘creative types’’ who burying past living surfaces, and rearranging the land- build installations and structures at the sites while con- scape’’ (2006:720). One form of recovery is the act of tributing labor to their renovation and construction.16 In salvaging and transforming would-be trash into lucra- a meeting with me and Kilgore, Fisher informed us tive sources of income, such as when entrepreneurs buy that the PterodactylsFa group of artists who had dilapidated built a popular installation at another site called ‘‘the Struggling to Recover New Orleans BRODINE 83

Treehouse’’Fhad first rights to modify and inhabit the Conclusion property, including its two double-shotgun houses and the vast backyard, but that we could use one Despite the ephemeral ‘‘eventness’’ of an exhibition, it of the houses on the property for a series of exhibitions, emerges out of ongoing conversations and contributes and on a collaborative basis, in return for some menial to their progress. The exhibition, like the laboratory, construction labor.17 Beginning in October 2010, does not exist in a vacuum. While the curatorial pro- I worked with Kilgore to clean out the entire house, cessFlike ethnography, art, and the experimental dismantle one of the crumbling fiberglass ceilings, methodFrelies somewhat on a series of accidents, en- cover up holes in the exterior walls, and reinforce the counters, and associations, it is a form of social action joists on the porch and one of the crumbling columns. and thus evokes a responsibility for reflexivity and crit- I viewed the house as part of the exhibition, so I ical engagement. Both Ethnographic Terminalia 2010: refrained from patching holes on interior walls and left New Orleans and Art Spill agitated borders in different patina on the floor from a layer of crumbling linoleum ways and left lasting signatures in the neighborhoods over the original hardwood. We also chose not to paint, where they took place. Ethnographic Terminalia 2010: leaving instead a mix of base whites and browns, with New Orleans brought outsiders and art-practicing bright red trim in one room and pink in another. Kilgore ethnographers to a shotgun house that had been trans- brought some gallery lights, while other rooms were lit formed into a professional, meticulous local gallery with household ceiling fans carrying 60-watt bulbs. The space. According to Villere (personal communication): result was a much less professionalized scene than that of Du Mois, but one which functioned as additional ET provided Du Mois another dimension to our ve- commentary on the post-Katrina landscape and the nue. Being so new we wanted to push the use of the complex negotiations that occur between various inter- space, and we feel ET helped accomplish this goal. locutors involved in taphonomy. By adding video components primarily, but espe- The use of old shotguns for both Ethnographic cially the darkroom projector piece. It was as if we Terminalia 2010: New Orleans and for Art Spill high- were the kitchen and ET the chef. We didn’t know lights the complexities of ‘‘revitalization’’ projects quite what to expect but were very pleased with the and the related process of ‘‘gentrification.’’ While the use of the space, the new faces that it brought in, and presence of artistic and transformative projects can the perspective of use of the space. In a sense it result in reduced crime and greater community partici- galvanized our commitment as a venue and re- pation, they can also increase property values and evict commitment to our neighborhood to bring to the pioneering creative agents, ultimately resulting in public something this part of the world had not yet homogeneity and standardization of services among really experienced. formerly unique neighborhoods. For me, these questions emerged in the process of curation, as I became familiar For Du Mois, Ethnographic Terminalia 2010: New with the demographics of local news media outlets and Orleans paved the way for similar kinds of transforma- their audiences, and encountered critiques on this sub- tive exhibitions and events, including gallery talks, ject from participating artists. The exhibitions force an performances, and fundraising or academic events. It evaluation of the relationship between the taphonomic also extended the exhibition beyond the gallery space process at the grassroots street level, the activities of re- into the Freret Corridor through Candy Chang’s project, sourceful families like Villere and Deville, a complex fusing gallery, and street art in an unusual way. colonial past, and overarching paradigms we call glob- At Art Spill, the defiant mix of works on exhibition alization and disaster capitalism. Exhibitions may also and the conversations and contradictions between take on a disruptive characterFa hallmark of success, the work of interdisciplinary actors on the panelF according to Basu and MacDonaldFoffering alterna- as well as the conflicting and cooperating engagements tives to the gentrification process by bringing works into with the property itselfFrevealed and emphasized new kinds of conversations and encouraging critical the inadequacy of the term community in the phrase reassessment of the role of creative projects in recovery community engagement. As Taussig notes (2008), the and revitalization. As the situationists demonstrated, term community is opaque, and obfuscates the diversity it is this jarring of boundaries, the exposure and chal- of perspectives and practices among those who would lenge of routine, which forces encounter with existing try to claim membership in some kind of community. socialities and encourages innovation and creativity Collaboration like thisFwhich purposefully brings through movement and circulation of bodies, works, together divergent perspectives so that they brush practices, and places. up against one another in surprising or accidental 84 VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY REVIEW Volume 27 Number 1 Spring 2011

waysFshows how some works may not only function 5 November exhibitions included Ethnographic Terminalia by challenging borders, but also by reinforcing or high- 2010: New Orleans at Du Mois and Barrister’s galleries, Art lighting them, agitating them not for the purpose of Spill in a shotgun house on St. Claude Avenue, SWARM: disruption but to reinforce their disciplinary functions. Multispecies Salon 3 at multiple venues, and Amble NOLA The presence of static, professional works, next to sci- at the Zeitgeist Multidisciplinary Arts Center in Central entific prints, next to disruptive and irreproducible site- City. For a full list of AAA 2010 Innovents, see http:// www.aaanet.org/meetings/2010-Inno-vents.cfm.The many specific works, demonstrated the fragility of categories, concurrent locally organized events included Prospect 1.5 and their reliance on assumption. Placed in dialectical and the Fringe Theatre Festival. relationship, the works shaped each other, transformed, 6 Various festivals are held throughout the year and include and were transformed by the space itself, such that much White Linen Night, Dirty Linen Night, Art for Art’s Sake on of the curating was done not by meFnor by other hu- Julia and Magazine Streets, art markets in the Freret Cor- man actorsFbut by the site and the works themselves. ridor, and monthly coinciding ‘‘art walks’’ on specific streets including Julia Street, Magazine Street, and St. Claude Avenue. Participatory events and festivals in- Notes volving parading and performative acts, for which many residents create costumes months in advance and year- 1 Interesting work on borders include ethnographic studies round, include Carnival celebrations, the fall festivals Dec- along the U.S./Mexican border, such as Alvarez (1995), adence and the Black Men of Labor Parade, the Running of Bhimji (2009), and Dorsey and Diaz-Borriga (2010). Stud- the Bulls (a satirical version of the Spanish festival), fund- ies of creativity in contested liminal zones include Allison raising events like the Red Dress Run, and competitive (2001) and Donnan (2010). food festivals like the Po’ Boy Fest. Some literature has 2 Basu and MacDonald (2007) summarize how science stud- looked at the role of musical parades and jazz funerals in ies scholars have revealed the inherently creative, reclaiming contested space as public (Sakakeeny 2010; dramatic, and exhibitionary practices of scientific, and Sublette 2008). particularly experimental, research (see Hacking 1983, La- 7 The lucrative presence of street and floodwall art has tour 1999, Law and Hassard 1999). Basu and MacDonald emerged in my conversations with levee board offi- extend these insights to exhibitions as staged and curated cialsFwho police tagging as part of their maintenance interactions that, like the laboratory or the experiment, are budgetsFand with local artists, as well as via my own not ‘‘merely . . . means for the display and dissemination of experience visually documenting the city’s neighbor- already existing, preformulated knowledges . . . The exhi- hoods. Much has also been documented in news media bition, too, is a site for generation rather than reproduction accounts, such as The Independent (2010), and by New of knowledge and experience’’ (2007:2). Orleans Times-Picayune writer Doug MacCash (see http:// 3 Olcese (2009) points out that most studies of social move- blog.nola.com/dougmaccash/index.html). Countermeasures ments, and other literature addressing the political aspects intending to ‘‘clean’’ the city of graffiti and public art in- of art, tend to view art in an instrumental or functional clude ‘‘Operation CleanSweep’’ and an individual vigilante capacity, ignoring how artworks can affect social change tagger known as ‘‘the Gray Ghost,’’ after his signature gray and movement in an autonomous manner. Through eth- paint and square style. I have also encountered a striking nographic research of art in European political demon- prevalence of public artFmainly in the form of hand- strations, Olcese demonstrates the visceral, emotional drawn and written signs along roadsidesFin Grand Isle qualities of artworks, which enable them to take an active and other coastal areas during the BP oil disaster, indicating role in relationships. For Olcese, this is how artworks do further need for study of these phenomena outside of urban ‘‘cultural work.’’ zones. 4 The predicaments of a sinking delta, and the complex his- 8 Rex Dingler is the founder of the public art group NOLA torical relationship between engineering practices and Rising, perhaps best known for creating colorful and wel- ongoing habitat loss, are well documented in engineering coming street signs during the aftermath of Katrina, when studies and others, such as Andersen et al. (2007), Campa- in the absence of a coherent city government, residents nella (2008), Member Scholars (2005), Mittal (2005), and returning evacuees found themselves without basic Petroski (2006), Poe (2006), and Seed et al. (2006). Nota- services and infrastructure. NOLA Rising is now an incor- ble ethnographic and historical work on the region’s porated nonprofit and recently received approval from the ongoing experience of trauma and disaster, associated de- Army Corps of Engineers and the Orleans Levee District to pression and health effects, and related demographic enact a mural project on the levee wall, topography include Adams et al. (2009), Barry (1997), Col- where the most disastrous levee break occurred and re- ten (2006), Curtis et al. (2007), and Otte (2007). Dawdy sulted in the floods that devastated the Lower Ninth Ward (2008) provides an excellent historical and archaeo- neighborhood as well as St. Bernard Parish. More infor- logical account of the region’s relationship with colonial mation about NOLA Rising can be found at http:// technologies. nolarising.blogspot.com/ and http://nolarising.org/. The Struggling to Recover New Orleans BRODINE 85

NOLA Rising movement has spread to other U.S. cities, in- and [will] conclude with the release of floating sculptures cluding an exhibition by Dingler in New York, New York, into open ocean currents for random landings worldwide. called A Tag of Two Cities. Dingler’s work appeared in the The sculptures will function as water sensors . . . to assess Art Spill exhibit in the form of a site-specific installation the quality of our waterways, accompanied by a coordi- about the oil spill. nated public engagement campaign and in-depth 9 Crista Rock is a member of NOLA Rising and is well noted participatory education platforms.’’ More information can for her public and street art. Her work appeared in the Art be found in a description of the project under ‘‘Project Mu- Spill exhibit in the form of a site-specific installation tants’’ on DeDeaux’s website. based on some original street art she staged in response to 14 Many homeless sleep in exposed areas due to lack of space the BP oil disaster. For more information on Rock’s ac- in local shelters. The practice of ‘‘squatting’’ by homeless claimed work as a filmmaker and artist, see her website at adults and vagrant youth, and the rise of these populations http://www.cristaphoto.com/. in New Orleans since Katrina, has been well documented in 10 For a full list of Art Spill participants, including panelists, news stories (Gonzales 2007, Satchfield 2010). More infor- please see http://ethnographicterminalia.org/2010-new- mation on the state of affairs facilitated by the ‘‘jack-o- orleans/art-spill. lantern effect’’ can be found in Dawdy (2006) and Dawdy 11 The Krewe of Dead Pelicans was founded by a self-titled and Weyhing (2008). ‘‘accidental activist,’’ Ro Mayer. Mayer is a local real estate 15 Local directions are often organized in reference to the agent who practiced various creative hobbies, including bodies of water that surround and bisect the metropolitan transforming discarded objects into costumes and other area. These are most notably , which pieces. Channeling the trauma of her post-Katrina experi- lies to the north, west, and east of the metropolitan area; ences, she used Facebook to announce a street protest. and the , which separates the East Bank Carnival krewes are inherently satirical, so she labeled the from West Bank neighborhoods. Directional references are gathering the ‘‘Krewe of Dead Pelicans’’ and announced relative to the immediate location where one is having a that it would be a procession in the manner of a Jazz conversation. For example, a location on Funeral and Second Line parade. Participants were can be said to be ‘‘lakeside’’ of the French Quarter. Indi- encouraged to wear costumes portraying various creatures vidual buildings are also said to be on the lakeside or affected by the oil spill, or to wear black and blueFblack riverside of any given street. ‘‘Uptown’’ is used direction- for oil and blue for water. The blue was also supposed to be ally to indicate ‘‘upriver.’’ reminiscent of ‘‘Katrina tarps’’Fa colloquialism for the 16 This is a pseudonym. visual panorama of blue roofs, composed of the tarps pro- 17 Some interviews with Pterodactyl artists Scott and Kim- vided by FEMA after Katrina. Participants were also berly, as well as footage of their struggles with the city of encouraged to bring decorated umbrellas in the manner of New Orleans as public and deviant installation artists, ap- a Second Line. A local band of jazz musicians, the Pair O’ pear in the film Conversations with Artists (Morelli 2010). Dice Tumblers, led the procession with the satirical chant ‘‘It Ain’t Our Fault’’ and a classic funeral dirge, followed by hundreds of costumed and umbrella-bearing participants. References For videos of the event, search for ‘‘Krewe of Dead Peli- cans’’ at http://www.youtube.com, and visit the Krewe of Adams, Vincanne, Taslim van Hattum, and Diana English Dead Pelicans Facebook page for more information at 2009 Displacement, Disaster Capitalism, and the Eviction of http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=105865196126 the Poor from New Orleans. American Ethnologist 837&ref=ts. Mayer used many of the same props in her 36(4):615–636. site-specific installation at Art Spill. Allen, Barbara 12 For the full text of the poem, see http://www.rex 2003 Uneasy Alchemy: Citizens and Experts in Louisiana’s dingler.com/writings/poems/ashes/katrina.htm. Chemical Corridor Disputes. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 13 Dawn DeDeaux is an interdisciplinary artist with roots in Allison, Anne the American South. More information about her work can 2001 Cyborg Violence: Bursting Borders and Bodies with Queer be found at http://www.dawndedeaux.com/. She was one Machines. Cultural Anthropology 16(2):237–265. of the artists featured in several of the exhibitions taking Alvarez, R. R. place during the AAA 109th Annual Meeting, including 1995 The Mexican–US Border: The Making of an Anthro- Art Spill and SWARM: Multispecies Salon III. Examples of pology of Borderlands. Annual Review of Anthro- her post-Katrina work, featured in Art Spill, linked the pology 24:447–470. project thematically with the multispecies explorations of Andersen, Christine F., Jurjen A. Battjes, David E. Daniel, Billy Edge, SWARM, which hosted an installation by DeDeaux called William Espey Jr., Robert B. Gilbert, Thomas L. Jackson, David ‘‘Project Mutants.’’ Project Mutants is ‘‘an ambitious art Kennedy, Dennis S. Mileti, James K. Mitchell, Peter Nicholson, and science collaborative project’’ which involves the Clifford A. Pugh, George Tamaro Jr., and Robert Traver ‘‘anchoring of illuminated, cell-like sculptures into the 2007 The New Orleans Protection Hurricane Protection Sys- adjacent rivers and marshes of participating communities, tem: What Went Wrong and Why: A Report by the 86 VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY REVIEW Volume 27 Number 1 Spring 2011

American Society of Civil Engineers. Fishman, Maggie External Review Panel. Reston, VA: ASCE. 2010 Creating Art, Creating Citizens: Arts Education as Banksy Cultural Activism. In Cultural Activism, Power, and 2010 Exit Through the Gift Shop. 87 minutes. U.K.: Public Life in America. Melissa Checker and Maggie Paranoid Pictures. Fishman, eds. Pp. 51–70. New York: Columbia Uni- Barry, John M. versity Press. 1997 Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and Gonzalez, John Moreno How It Changed America. New York: Touchstone, 2007 Homeless on the Rise in New Orleans: Squat in Build- Simon and Schuster. ings Condemned After Hurricane Katrina. Boston Basu, Paul, and Sharon MacDonald Online, August 19. http://articles.boston.com/2007-08- 2007 Introduction: Experiments in Exhibition, Ethnography, 19/news/29238091_1_homeless-population-homeless- Art and Science. In Exhibition Experiments. S. Mac- camp-homeless-people, accessed December 5, 2010. Donald and P. Basu, eds. Pp. 1–24. Oxford: Blackwell. Hacking, Ian Bhimji, Fazila 1983 Representing and Intervening: Introductory Topics in 2009 Mexican and Central American Migrants in El Paso. the Philosophy of Science. Cambridge: Cambridge Cultural Dynamics 21(2):107–132. University Press. Campanella, Richard Heller, Monica 2008 Bienville’s Dilemma: A Historical Geography of New 2009 Circulation: Call for Papers. 109th Annual Meeting, Orleans. Lafayette: Center of Louisiana Studies, Uni- American Anthropological Association. Anthropol- versity of Louisiana at Lafayette. ogy News, December 16–18. Colten, Craig E. The Independent 2006 Vulnerability and Place: Flat Land and Uneven Risk 2010 American Graffiti: How New Orleans’ Residents in New Orleans. American Anthropologist 108(4): Used Spray Paint to Voice Their Feelings about Hur- 731–734. ricane Katrina. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/ Curtis, Andrew, Jacqueline Warren Mills, and Michael Leitner world/americas/american-graffiti-how-new-orleans- 2007 Katrina and Vulnerability: The Geography of Stress. residentsused-spray-paint-to-voice-their-feelings- Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved about-hurricane-katrina-2061836.html, accessed 18:315–330. November 28, 2010. Dawdy, Shannon Lee Latour, Bruno 2006 The Taphonomy of Disaster and the (Re)Formation 1999 Pandora’s Hope: Essays on the Reality of Science of New Orleans. American Anthropologist 108(4): Studies. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 719–730. Law, J., and J. Hassard, eds. 2008 Building the Devil’s Empire: French Colonial New 1999 Actor Network Theory and After. Oxford: Blackwell. Orleans. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Member Scholars of the Center for Progressive Reform Dawdy, Shannon Lee, and Richard Weyhing 2005 An Unnatural Disaster: The Aftermath of Hurricane 2008 Beneath the Rising Sun: ‘‘Frenchness’’ and the Katrina Executive Summary. A Center for Progres- Archaeology of Desire. International Journal of His- sive Reform Publication, September. http://www torical Archaeology 12:370–387. .progressivereform.org/Unnatural_Disaster_512.pdf, Delicath, John W. accessed December 20, 2007. 2004 Art and Advocacy: Citizen Participation Through Mittal, Anu Cultural Activism. In Communication and Public 2005 Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Energy and Participation in Environmental Decision Making. Water Development, Committee on Appropriations, Stephen P. Depoe, John W. Delicath, and Marie- House of Representatives: Lake Pontchartrain and France Aepli Elsenbeer, eds. Pp. 255–266. New York: Vicinity Hurricane Protection Project. Army Corps of SUNY Press. Engineers. United States Government Accountability Dingler, Rex Office, September 28. 2011 A Better Man/A Better City: A New Year’s Resolve. Morelli, Vincent Humid City. http://humidcity.com/2011/01/04/rex- 2010 Conversations with Artists. 84 mins. New Orleans resolve/, accessed January 4, 2010. Film Festival. Donnan, Hastings Olcese, Cristiana 2010 Cold War Along the Emerald Curtain: Rural Bound- 2009 Ethnography of Conflict: Art vs. Politics in Protests. aries in a Contested Border Zone. Social An- 4th Annual Joint University of Liverpool Manage- thropology/Anthropologie Sociale 18(3):253–266. ment School and Keele University Institute for Public Dorsey, Margaret E., and Miguel Diaz-Borriga Policy and Management Symposium on Current De- 2010 Beyond Surveillance and Moonscapes: An Alternative velopments in Ethnographic Research in the Social Imaginary of the U.S.-Mexico Border Wall. Visual and Management Sciences, August 23–25. University Anthropology Review 26(2):128–135. of Liverpool Management School. Struggling to Recover New Orleans BRODINE 87

Otte, Marline M. Hanemann, L. F. Harder, K. S. Inkabi, A. M. Kammerer, 2007 The Mourning After: Languages of Loss and Grief in D. Karadeniz, R. E. Kayen, R. E. S. Moss, J. Nicks, S. Nimmala, Post-Katrina New Orleans. Journal of American His- J. M. Pestana, J. Porter, K. Rhee, M. F. Riemer, K. Roberts, tory 94(December):828–836. J. D. Rogers, R. Storesund, A. V. Govindasamy, X. Vera- Petroski, Henry Grunauer, J. E. Wartman, C. M. Watkins, E. Wenk Jr., and 2006 Levees and Other Raised Ground. American Scientist S. C. Yim 94:7–11. 2006 Investigation of the Performance of the New Orleans Poe, Cynthia R. Flood Protection Systems in Hurricane Katrina on 2006 Reconstructing the Levees: The Politics of Flooding in August 29, 2005: Final Report, July 31. Digital Com- 19th Century Louisiana. Ph.D. dissertation, University mons. http://works.bepress.com/rmoss/17/. of Wisconsin. Sublette, Ned Sakakeeny, Matt 2008 The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish 2010 ‘‘Under the Bridge’’: An Orientation to Soundscapes in Silver to Congo Square. Chicago: Lawrence Hill New Orleans. Ethnomusicology 54(1):1–27. Books. Independent Publishers Group. Satchfield, Scott Taussig, Michael 2010 Deadly Ninth Ward Fire Raises Concerns about City’s 2008 Taussig Discusses Ethnography and Art at Sydney Homeless Problem. Eyewitness News. WWL-TV, Biennale 18 June 2008. Youtube Video Link. Digital December 28. Ethnography. http://digiethno.wordpress.com/2008/ Seed, R. B., R. G. Bea, R. I. Abdelmalak, A. G. Athanasopoulos, 07/04/mick-taussig-discuses-ethnography-and-art- G. P. Boutwell, J. D. Bray, J.-L. Briaud, C. Cheung, D. Cobos-Roa, at-sydney-biennale-18-june-2008/, accessed Nov- J. Cohen-Waeber, B. D. Collins, L. Ehrensing, D. Farber, ember 28, 2010.

Appendix A

FIGURE A1. The Mississippi River Levee is a mound of earth con- taining a specific mix of clay and moisture. Here, a bike path runs along the top of the levee; in some areas, locals use the levee as a dog park. The structure with pipes extending over the levee into the river is part of an industrial complex. This section of the river has been coined the ‘‘Chemical Corridor’’ (see Allen 2003). 2009.

FIGURE A2. This is the riverside of the same stretch of levee. A broken-down barge floats near grazing white ibis. Another ship docks at the industrial complex nearby. 2009. 88 VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY REVIEW Volume 27 Number 1 Spring 2011

FIGURE A3. This levee, capped by a layer of cement armoring and a steel floodwall, is found along the London Avenue Canal. White ibis graze on the levee. A tag can be seen on the structure to the right. Policing and covering up tags are a part of regular levee maintenance. 2009.

FIGURE A5. This is another Katrina memorial in the Lower Ninth Ward. Fresh white roses rest atop red chairs on the fifth anniver- sary. The bridge in the background connects the Upper and Lower Ninth Ward neighborhoods and spans the Industrial Canal. The an- nual Katrina Anniversary Second Line leads a procession, on foot, across the bridge from the Lower to the Upper Ninth Ward and on through several neighborhoods.

FIGURE A4. On the fifth Katrina anniversary, photographer Craig Morse snaps a shot of a memorial arrangement at the Industrial Canal levee wall breach site. The pink mark on the concrete armoring is an engineering mark. This breach was the most cata- strophic in the metropolitan area, flooding the Lower Ninth Ward with a violent surge of water. 2010. Struggling to Recover New Orleans BRODINE 89

FIGURE A7. During the St. Patrick’s Day parade in the Irish Channel, I snapped this photograph of a message washed onto the side of a building: ‘‘Love One Another.’’ 2010.

FIGURE A6. Another interesting boundary line in New Orleans is the so-called ‘‘neutral ground.’’ While these are usually called ‘‘medians’’ in other cities, they have a specific history in the Mis- sissippi Delta. Once open canals, they are now stretches of slightly elevated grassy land that serve as parking areas during floods. Staunchly defended as public land, they are also sites of demon- stration during political campaigns, neighborhood memorials, and recreational activities such as picnicking and board games. This Katrina memorial on St. Claude Avenue features a sign quoting , a hurricane scientist who worked for Louisiana State University (LSU): ‘‘If we had the will and one month’s money from Iraq, we could do all the levees and restore the coast.’’ 2010. FIGURE A8. At this ‘‘Oilflood Protest,’’ it was raining, resulting in a proliferation of strikingly colorful umbrellas as well as imaginative demonstration signs. 2010. 90 VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY REVIEW Volume 27 Number 1 Spring 2011

FIGURE A11. Ro Mayer stands at the rally point of the Krewe of Dead Pelicans (KoDP) funereal march, held in response to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster. Her brother is dressed as a pipe with a cascade of black balloons representing the gushing oil, still unhindered at the time of the demonstration. To his left, local activist Julie Butera raises her umbrella, decorated with black feathers and an oiled pelican on top. 2010. FIGURE A9. At this ‘‘Oilflood Protest,’’ it was raining, resulting in a proliferation of strikingly colorful umbrellas as well as imaginative demonstration signs. 2010.

FIGURE A12. A group of Krewe of Dead Pelicans (KoDP) marchers, dressed in the signature colors black and blue, carry umbrellas dec- orated with various sea creatures, including turtles and crabs. These and other creatures were mourned during the mock funeral pro- cession that was held in response to the Deepwater Horizon Oil FIGURE A10. At this ‘‘Oilflood Protest,’’ it was raining, resulting in a Disaster. Using materials from the procession, KoDP founder Ro proliferation of strikingly colorful umbrellas as well as imaginative Mayer curated an on-site installation at Art Spill: Disaster, Art, demonstration signs. 2010. Activism, and Recovery.2010. Struggling to Recover New Orleans BRODINE 91

FIGURE A13. Krewe of Dead Pelicans (KoDP) participants arrived FIGURE A15. The Art Spill exhibition was held in Rue St. Denis on dressed in a wide range of costumes reminiscent of Carnival par- St. Claude Avenue. The Innovent panel, a poetry reading, and the ades and traditional satirical demonstrations. 2010. anthropological portion of the exhibition were held on the right side of the house, while the fundraiser and auction, organized principally by Mike Kilgore of Collective World Art Community, took place on the left side.

FIGURE A14. Most Ethnographic Terminalia 2010: New Orleans works were shown at the Du Mois Gallery, a converted historic shotgun in the Freret Corridor.

FIGURE A16. Ethnographic Terminalia 2010: New Orleans at Du Mois featured the Fels’s work on the complex history of the shot- gun, an architectural style unique to New Orleans. 92 VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY REVIEW Volume 27 Number 1 Spring 2011

FIGURE A19. Hilary Wallis, artist and Executive Director of Artfully Aware, holds up her work while standing in front of NOLA Rising FIGURE A17. A portion of Dingler’s site-specific installation at Art artist Crista Rock’s installation at Art Spill. Between Rock’s posters, Spill was reminiscent of public art installations he had placed in Dawn DeDeaux’s work ‘‘Mold in Black and Green’’ sits on top of the highly visible locations in the city. mantel. Artfully Aware is an international nonprofit organization invested in promoting economic, social, and psychological recovery through the arts. Since exhibiting at Art Spill, Wallis has founded a chapter of Artfully Aware in New Orleans.

FIGURE A18. Photographer Craig Morse assembles his installation. Many Art Spill participants hung their own work at my request. Struggling to Recover New Orleans BRODINE 93

FIGURE A20. One of the works at Ethnographic Terminalia 2010: New Orleans was called ‘‘I Wish This Was,’’ by Candy Chang. Chang provided stickers for guests to distribute at will, completing phrases beginning with ‘‘I Wish This Was.’’ One of our favorites is this one, which appeared on the gallery copy of the Ethnographic Terminalia 2010: New Orleans program during the exhibition. It reads, ‘‘I wish this was happening more frequently.’’