NOLA Culture Uncategorized

3 Must-See Prospect.5 Exhibits Before the Close of the City-Wide Triennial

Eric-Paul Reige at Prospect.5

Prospect.5, the city-wide art event that only happens every three years, and is in its fifth edition, is closing on Sunday January 23. According to the organization, this fifth edition was inspired by New Orleans jazz musician Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah’s 2010 album Yesterday You Said Tomorrow, the title of the exhibition centers the unspoken present, the place where past and future come together, and where other courses of action become possible.

With only a few days left to cram all the exhibits into your schedule, here’s 3 you absolutely have to see before their close.

1. One of the youngest artists selected to exhibit at Prospect.5, Eric-Paul Riege is a multi-media artist but focuses his work on woven and wearable art. He and his work celebrate his Navajo heritage. For P.5 he created a massive textile-based installation, on view at the Contemporary Arts Center. Four llamas [maybe goats?] bear cloaks with metal embellishments that jingle with movement. And yes, they’re meant to be touched and hear the sounds!

During closing weekend, on Saturday January 22, the installation will be activated by the artist. From prospect: “He will don the cloaks within the artwork for a four-hour performance. Guests are welcome to come in and out of the CAC galleries to experience the performance over its duration.”

2. Located in Capdville Place Park, between Esplanade Avenue and Crete Street, New Orleans-based artist Anastasia Pelias created a beautiful sculpture that pays homage to her roots, specifically the Oracle of Delphi. The sculpture rests upon on a bed of red mulch and even has a unique twist to the experience of sculpture— you can smell it. That’s right, Anastasia Pelias created a perfume dedicated to the project to give viewers a multi-sensory experience.

Anastasia Pelias is concurrently exhibiting at her representing gallery, Jonathan Ferrara Gallery. The show, titled Anastasia Screamed In Vain (Painting On Loss, Longing And Love), is on view at the gallery through February 12, 2022.

3. Venture to New Orleans East’s Joe Brown Park to see a piece of JazzLand’s monumental ferris wheel reimagined as a public sculpture. The carriage, from the actual ferris wheel at the abandoned theme park, sits upon a steel structure several tens of feet in the air.

From the artist, EJ Hill: “My heart broke the first time I saw aerial images of Jazzland/Six Flags New Orleans submerged under several feet of water shortly after Hurricane Katrina. But the real blow came after knowing that the park had been sitting derelict ever since, and at the time of my first visit to the park in early 2019 (fourteen years after Katrina), the marquee at the entrance still read “CLOSED FOR STORM.” On that day, I had also learned that one of the gondolas from The Big Easy Ferris Wheel (presumably the one that had been underwater the longest) had deteriorated and become detached from the rest of the wheel. Since the total weight of the wheel was no longer balanced, the entire structure slowly shifted 180° so that an empty spot—a hole—remained at the top of the wheel for years. As part of this new work, “Rises in the East,” that very gondola, that fallen star is now back in the sky where she belongs.”

To see the full list of exhibitions, and a schedule of closing weekend events, visit www.prospect5.org.

 

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