Make America What America Must Become
America is an anxious nation chasing a more perfect union. As it's political body struggles along the arc of justice, the truths 鈥渨e鈥� hold, rarely appear self-evident. Complicated by an overtly mediated era, today's social movements demand a punctuated examination of #historicalconsequence and #power. At this moment, the distance between Art and Politics鈥攔eflection and response鈥攕eems to be collapsing. In a letter to his nephew on the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, philosopher and American commentator, James Baldwin, offered an optimistic but urgent message, "Great men have done great things here, and will again, and we can make America what America must become."
During a summer of electoral consternation, the CAC presents Make America What America Must Become, An Exhibition of Gulf South Artists. Together, 34 artists from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Bulbancha examine how power is made manifest in culture, politics, economics, and ecology. Their works speak urgently to the current political paradigm and reflect broadly on the conjuring and churning of the American fever dream.
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America is an anxious nation chasing a more perfect union. As it's political body struggles along the arc of justice, the truths 鈥渨e鈥� hold, rarely appear self-evident. Complicated by an overtly mediated era, today's social movements demand a punctuated examination of #historicalconsequence and #power. At this moment, the distance between Art and Politics鈥攔eflection and response鈥攕eems to be collapsing. In a letter to his nephew on the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, philosopher and American commentator, James Baldwin, offered an optimistic but urgent message, "Great men have done great things here, and will again, and we can make America what America must become."
During a summer of electoral consternation, the CAC presents Make America What America Must Become, An Exhibition of Gulf South Artists. Together, 34 artists from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Bulbancha examine how power is made manifest in culture, politics, economics, and ecology. Their works speak urgently to the current political paradigm and reflect broadly on the conjuring and churning of the American fever dream.
Artists on show
- Adam Farcus
- André Fuqua
- AnnieLaurie Erickson
- Aryel Jackson
- C. E. Johnson
- Caroline Sinders
- Coulter Fussell
- Dalila Sanabria
- Dan Rule
- Darryl Lauster
- Derrick Woods-Morrow
- Dustin Harewood
- Edison Peñafiel
- Fernando Lopez
- Gabriel Martinez
- Gabrielle Garcia Steib
- Jacksun Bein
- Javier Barrera
- Jeffery Darensbourg
- Kjelshus Collins
- Kristine Thompson
- Krystle Lemonias
- Langston Allston
- Lauren Cardenas
- Lionel Milton
- Luis Cruz Azaceta
- Lynn Burgos
- Monique Michelle Verdin
- Ned & Shiva Productions
- Ozone 504
- Rosalie Smith
- Sarah Hill
- Stephen Paul Day
- Veronica Ceci
- Veronica Cross
- Yue Nakayama
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Make America What America Must Become, an exhibition of Gulf South artists at the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans, lays bare the fuzziness of time, the vagueness of the boundaries that separate what once was from what now is.
鈥淢ake America What America Must Become鈥� takes its title from a line in James Baldwin鈥檚 鈥淎 Letter to My Nephew.鈥�
I write this in spring; dead flowers bloom at the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans.
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