implicit art

My long silence is over at last. I managed to find my long lost password and get to work.
Things are on the move. I was recently (4 weeks ago) in New Orleans. We went to volunteer for Acorn-an aid agency assisting local community members in getting their lives back together after Hurricane Katrina. It was quite a site to see. Some areas like the Lower Ninth ward (a low income black area) was completely devastated-houses shifted, crushed and floated away. Even two barges -that were meant to have been evacuated- came over the levee and landed in the neighborhood, crushing homes in their path. Another large neighborhood in which we spent most of our time (North east New Orleans), was less damaged, but still largley vacant.
The water sat at between 4 and 8 feet for about a week and a half. All the houses are being gutted and the contents thrown out. Some are so badly built that they are unusable and some have begun to rebuild already. The area has on average 2/3 homes currently being rebuilt on each street, and maybe, If your lucky you might see a FEMA trailer-a trailer provided by the government. These are far from the 3000 trailers that currently sit and rot because they are not in use, due to mismanagement. But enough- despite the many problems the city is slowly picking up. Never have I had such good food, bars and music all in one area. The place strongly reminded me of Cape Town and it was a blast, as much as it was shocking. One more thing-at the end of the day, none of these people are living in shacks.

On my own scene, I am moving fast with new work, new ideas and new installations. I have also just received news that my proposal for an installation has been accepted. It’s for Pratt Institute’s Manhattan campus and I will be making work for permanent installation for the 4th floor foyer. I am excited and ready to get working.
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