In early November 2010, the multitude of creative agents animating the Multispecies Salon in New Orleans descended on a warehouse, the Ironworks, and hastily remodeled it as an art gallery. There the curators, Myrtle von Damitz III and Eben Kirksey, populated the space with organisms and artworks that spoke to the theme “Hope in Blasted Landscapes”. Some sixty artworks orbited around a central question: “In the aftermath of disasters—in blasted landscapes that have been transformed by multiple catastrophes—what are the possibilities of biocultural hope?”
Culture workers who were deeply implicated in sweeping political, economic, and ecological transformations cautiously explored future horizons in the wake of recent disasters that put New Orleans in the national spotlight. Dark, dystopic images, a digital rendering of fugitive emissions from nearby oil refineries, flickered overhead. Illustrations of deformed and crippled insects, collected from the shadows of nuclear disasters, covered a makeshift plywood wall. Images of chemical oceanographers—working to make sense of molecular and microbial transformations taking place near the site of the Deepwater Horizon explosion—fueled discussions about upcoming protests against BP and funeral processions for the creatures killed by the flood of oil in the Gulf of Mexico.
One might expect that this accumulated evidence of advancing disasters—a perfect storm of human follies and agencies beyond the control of gallery visitors—might dampen their revelry. Instead, these signs of calamity strangely fueled a celebratory atmosphere in which it seemed as if anything might happen at any time. These tinkerers found hope in blasted landscapes by twining their dreams with particular plots of land, specific neighborhoods, and small stretches of coastline. Being present with significant others in the world—learning to live with goats, hermit crabs, and multiple other species—artists forged connections with the native soil and shorelines of the City That Care Forgot.
See also: Blasted Landscapes
Further Reading
Kirksey, Eben et al. (2014) “Hope in Blasted Landscapes” in The Multispecies Salon, Durham: Duke University Press, pp. 25-63.
